


The Joker's Sister - A Metahuman

by IamBumbleshootTheMagnificent



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), Batman - All Media Types, DC Universe, Suicide Squad (2016), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Barry Allen - Freeform, Batman - Freeform, Central City, Crossover, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Death, F/M, Feels, Flash/Batman Crossover, Gotham City - Freeform, Heroes, Original Background -Joker, Original Character - Joker's Sister, Original Character-Pandora Videl, Original Fanfic, Original Version of Joker - Alastor Videl, Pandemonia likes PANDEMONIUM (Imagine that), Star City, The Flash - Freeform, Villains, at some points, flash fanfiction, flashfic, sorrynotsorry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-05
Updated: 2017-02-20
Packaged: 2018-07-29 14:59:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 22
Words: 29,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7689013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IamBumbleshootTheMagnificent/pseuds/IamBumbleshootTheMagnificent
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Joker's half sister is a metahuman who he drove insane. She is enjoying herself, causing trouble in Central City, until she meets a certain Scarlet Speedster. Then she REALLY has some fun.</p><p>I had a dream, after watching Suicide Squad a while back, that the Joker had a half sister who was a Meta from Central City. I decided to turn it into a fanfic! Let me know what you think! (My first fanfic, sorry if it's a bit slow on updates.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Missing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a fanfic written not within a certain time frame on Flash. After the Accelerator explosion, obviously, but before Flashpoint.

It was a pretty average Friday in Central City. Barry and Iris were at Star Labs, talking to Cisco and Caitlin about plans for Karaoke and drinks later that night.

Barry’s phone suddenly began to ring.

“Hello?”

"Barry! Turn on the news!” _Click_.

Barry, surprised by the anxious voice and abruptness, stared at his phone for a moment.

“What? Who was it?” Cisco asked, as everyone looked at Barry.

“Felicity...I think.” His voice was unsure.

Curiously, Barry reached behind Iris’ back to grab the television remote. Everyone looked at him, confused. He was confused as well. Felicity was never quick with phone calls; Barry sometimes spent hours just chatting about atoms and molecules with her. He had never had such a short phone call from her before.

A news report was on the screen, the headline on the bottom of the screen reading “Third Person to Mysteriously Disappear From Crowded Public Area in Central City”. The news anchor, a balding man in his late thirties, was reading a script and talking to the audience.

“A third person has mysteriously disappeared from a crowded public area in Central City. Johnson Adams, twenty-three, was reported missing earlier tonight. His wife, Marie, personally told a Central City News journalist, that her husband was there one moment, and gone the next. He is the fifth to go missing in the last ten days in such a manner. The Central City Police Department refused to comment, but sources inside reported that the Police are no closer to finding them then they were to begin with. The people of Central City may want to-”

Iris ripped the remote out of Barry’s hand and pushed the power button viciously.

“I hate that guy.” She muttered. She then stomped out of Star Labs, anger pulsing through her veins.

Barry and Cisco exchanged an anxious look.

“I guess I should get to CCPD,” Barry said after a moment of silence. With a _whoosh_ , he was gone.

“So much for Karaoke,” Cisco complained.


	2. Mystery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry has no idea how these people went missing. He seeks help from Star Labs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, real quick: 181 hits on the first chapter! YOU GUYS MAKE MY LIFE SO HAPPY THANK YOU SO MUCH.  
> Now, to the story!

"I don't understand!"

Detective Joseph West had rarely heard those words from his adoptive son. And to hear them now, when more people were mysteriously disappearing every day, was more frightening to him than he'd ever admit to anyone. He took a deep breath to calm himself down before he turned around to look at Barry, who was stooped over the slight imprints of shoes in the dust.

"Are you sure there is nothing there?"

Barry glanced up at him with a look that might've been annoyance if he hadn't been so worried.

"I'm sure! The footsteps lead from over there," Barry pointed to the other side of the emptied diner that they were examining, "to right here. Then they just...stop!" He straightened and groaned aloud in aggravation. "As much as Iris may hate that obnoxious reporter from work, he was right about one thing. We have no leads."

Joe inwardly flinched. Barry's constant optimism seemed to have abandoned him for the moment, and that worried him. This case worried him. Iris worried him. Joe was worried, suffice it to say.

“Did you ask the security guard about the surveillance tapes?” Barry asked Joe, straightening up.

“Yes, I did. Do you think we should send them over to Star Labs?”

Barry paused for a moment before he replied, shaking his head. “Well, if anyone can help us unravel this mystery, it’s Cisco.”

 

~~

 

Cisco was studying the corrupted frames with Barry looking over his shoulder. He was getting more and more annoyed by the minute. He could practically _feel_ Barry’s breath on the back of his neck.

“Barry!” Cisco snapped, whipping around and almost smacking Barry with his arms as he swung them outward. He stood up and Barry took a few steps backwards.

“What?” Barry asked, part annoyed, part sheepish.

“I’m trying to concentrate!” Cisco growled.

Barry gave him a frown back. Cisco rolled his eyes and turned back to the computer, sitting down with more _oomph!_ than strictly necessary.

“What am I supposed to do?” Barry groaned. Cisco glanced at the clock before he answered.

“Go home. It’s past midnight. I’ll call you when I get these images cleared up.”

“Fine.”

Barry’s speedy exit sent the papers around Cisco flying. He groaned and made **another** mental note to buy paper weights.

 

~~

 

Barry awoke to the shrill ring of his cell phone. He glanced at the clock and saw that it was ten past eight. With a groan, he picks up his phone and answers it.

"Hello?" His voice is groggy and muffled.

"Barry! Where are you? We have another crime scene. I sent the address to your phone." Joe's voice sends Barry fully awake and rolling off his bed.

"Be right there."

And he is indeed, "right there." Within a minute of hanging up, Barry is dressed and alert, not even breathing heavily as he runs up next to Joe in the middle of the street.

"What's up?" Barry asks, snapping on his gloves and looking around.

"One of the missing people reappeared. They ran out into the road and got hit by a car right over there." Joe gestured to about a foot or two away from them, where blood was soaking into the road.

"Did you need something specific from the scene?" Barry asked, walking towards the blood while keeping his eye on Joe.

"Not really. But the hospital said that they found some inconsistencies with the blood that they were confused about, so I was thinking that maybe you could take a sample of it and get it over to our _friends_ with the fancy equipment."

Barry nodded and collected a sample of the blood. While leaning down to examine the ground, he also saw some pebbles and dirt. He bagged that as well, hoping it would help give some light on where the missing person had gone.

  
~~

 

When Barry arrived at Star Labs, coffee from Jitters in one hand, the blood sample in the other, he found Cisco sprawled out on the computer desk, drooling.

"Hey, bud." Barry nudged him.

Cisco sat up, muttering "It wasn't me who stole your orange soda."

Barry laughed and offered him the coffee. He blinked and then accepted after a moment of confusion.

"Thanks."

"Did you find anything last night?" Barry asks as he takes a seat next to Cisco.

"Not much." Cisco sighs and pulls up the security feed, which turns out to be several stills of the missing man walking out of the diner with a strange look on his face.

"Is he-" Barry asked, hesitating.

"Yeah, he's smiling. Like a maniac." Cisco's disgruntled and slightly perturbed response is muffled by the coffee he is gulping down.

"Is this all you have?" Barry asks, clicking through the stills. "His footsteps seemed to have stopped _here_ ," Barry gestures to where he found the last boot print yesterday. "But this shows him walking out of the building. How is that possible?"

Cisco shrugs and continues drinking his coffee.

"Well, here's this for you." Barry gave Cisco the blood sample. "When of the missing people ran out into the road this morning and got hit by a car. The hospital said that their blood was coming up with some weird readings. I thought you could have Caitlin take a stab at it." Looking around, Barry notices that she's not there.

"Hey, where is she?"

"Probably still at home. She refused to go before I got these cleared up, and by the time that was done, it was about two. I figure we can let her sleep for a few more hours." Barry nods and leans forward to look at the stills again.

After several minutes, Barry sighs and stands. "I better go to my lab and run analysis on the dirt I found at the scene. Text me when Caitlin comes in and let me know what she finds out."

He exits and Cisco groans and makes a SERIOUS mental note to buy paperweights.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I hope you liked the newest chapter of The Joker's Sister. This was a bit of running around, and mostly setting up for the next few chapters. I'm sorry about the verbal tenses, if anyone noticed! VERBS ARE MY GREATEST ADVERSARIES. I seriously suck at writing them, and have for years. SO I AM SORRY.
> 
> But, I hope you will see past them and continue reading. 
> 
> I'm planning on updating the next chapter SOON. But, school is starting next week so I may or may not get distracted.
> 
> PLEASE leave a comment letting me know what you thought. It would make my day. AND writing tips are encouraged. 
> 
> P.S. Next chapter is called "Pandemonium." Aka The Joker's sister's title. We WILL be meeting her.
> 
> Thanks so much!


	3. Pizza & Warehouses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry is on the trail of these missing people...hopefully.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the long wait!
> 
> I said last chapter that this would be called "Pandemonium." But then, I started writing, and completely ended up changing the ENTIRE STORY LINE I had established. Yay for friendly collabs!
> 
> So....We will meet Pandemonium...soon. Not just yet. 
> 
> I really hope you like this chapter! Let me know what you think.

Barry's analysis was interrupted by Joe, who walked into his lab with an impatient "Barry, have you got that analyzed yet?"

Barry sighed, turning to Joe, and said rather huffily "NO."

Joe looks carefully at his adoptive son, who is rubbing his eyes and frowning at his computer screen.

"Did you forget to eat again?"

"Yes, I did. I'm busy. I will call you when I get this." Barry glances at him before sitting down heavily at his desk.

"I'll call for pizza." Joe suggests, not taking the not-so-subtle hint to leave.

"Fine." Barry growls, his mood not lightened by the possibility of food.

Joe dials for pizza, six of their normal kind. Then he looks at Barry, who is looking worried, running his hand through his hair. "Barry, we'll find them."

"How is the person who was found? I gave Cisco the blood for Caitlin to analyze. I'm working on the dirt. From what I've got so far, it looks like it might be from Keystone. But I'm trying to narrow it down." Barry stands up and walks towards the window, looking out at his beloved city.

"Terra Michaels. That's her name. She is not looking so good. She was pretty much okay, despite the car and the blood we found, but they admitted her."

"Wait, admitted her?" Barry turns to look at him. Joe is sitting at Barry's desk, slowly clearing off the space for their pizzas.

"Yeah, to the Psych Unit. The doctors said she was hallucinating and they couldn't figure out the cause. Her sister, Olive, said that she was fine before she went missing. I'm not sure what's happening with her now." He shrugs.

"Do they know what she was hallucinating?" Barry asked, turning back to the window.

"The doctors said she was muttering and screaming a lot before they sedated her." Joe sounds slightly confused.

"What was she saying?" A shiver goes down Barry's spine.

"From what they could tell, Terra was saying there was a woman in her head. Someone kept turning out all their lights, supposedly. Not the real ones, in her room, but the ones in her mind. Anything purple too. She freaked out when she saw anything purple, whether it be a shirt or the color of one of the walls."

"Huh." Barry is stumped by this last piece of information.

"That's what I said. Maybe her sister was wrong, though. Maybe she was crazy to begin with." Joe sounds even more uncertain now.

"I don't know…We'll see what Caitlin says. Perhaps wherever she was, she got spiked with something or she was doing drugs."

"Maybe…" Joe says and they trail off into a few minutes of silence.

"I heard about the tip line they set up. How's that going?" Barry says, breaking the silence.

Joe sighs heavily, then replies. "I was against it. Tip lines always bring out the crazies, bar none. But Captain said it was probably our best bet at finding more of the missing people."

"I suppose…" Barry's machine dings and he walks over to it.

"Yep. What I thought: Keystone. It couldn’t narrow down the search though. So I might run over there later today."

"Mm. I'd say wait and see if the tip line ends up with anything."

Just then, their pizza arrived. The pizza delivery boy walked in, holding six pizzas and looking around curiously. Joe paid him and then shooed him out.

Barry was famished and he ate five pizzas all by himself. He would have eaten the sixth one too, but Joe gave him a look, and so Barry ate just the five.

 

~~

 

While they were finishing the last of their pizzas, Barry's phone rang. It was Cisco. Caitlin had something.

"What is it?" Barry asks as soon as Cisco hands Caitlin the phone.

"From what I could tell, there are some mixed chemicals in her blood. It's a bit difficult because they are so well-mixed, but I think they may have hallucinogenic properties." Caitlin replies steadily.

Frustrated, Barry says quickly, "They do. She's in the Psych Unit. Any idea how she got into contact with them? Did she take anything?"

"Not from what I can tell. I think they may have entered through her skin…But here's the weird part: they aren't anything from this side of the world! The only place in North America where I've heard about people working or having any of these chemicals is Gotham City."

"You think she was in Gotham?" Barry is incredulous now. "That's like six states away," he mutters under his breath.

"No. I think someone brought the chemicals here." Caitlin says, matter-of-factly.

"I think I'm going to call Oliver." Barry says decisively.

"That sounds like a good idea." Caitlin says and hangs up.

 

Oliver didn't know anything about chemicals from Gotham and he hadn't heard from their black-caped friend recently. But he did ask Barry if Barry needed any help. Barry said 'no' politely and hung up.

 

"Need any help?" Barry scoffed. "I'm the super hero here. Both he AND Batman are just rich vigilantes. Help! Pah."

Joe rolls his eyes.

Joe got a call from one of the officers on the tip line. Joe had informed him to let him know anything about Keystone. "Hey, what's up?"

"Tip line. Someone said they saw that guy from the news last night, the one who went missing. Over in Keystone. I figured you'd wanna take a look. I sent you the address. It's a warehouse."

"Thanks Lynes." says Joe.

 

"Someone called the tip line saying they saw the guy from the news last night enter a warehouse out in Keystone." Joe tells Barry when he hangs up the phone.

"Sounds good, I'll head over there." says Barry.

"Okay Barry, be careful, alright?"

"Always." Barry leaves behind Joe and six empty pizza boxes; he had snatched the last piece as he left.

 

 ~~~

 

As Barry arrived at the address Joe gave him, he saw the warehouse, crumbling and in horrid condition. He was surprised it was still standing.

He cautiously walked into the warehouse, keeping his head down and looking around for signs of the missing people. He heard a small _beep_ and then he was inhaling a puff of an unknown gas-like substance. He coughed for a few seconds, but (whether or not the gas was harmful he didn’t know) after those seconds, his airway was clear. He looked down, stunned. Even for the Flash, that had happened rather quickly. He made a mental note to have Caitlin check him up when he got back, forgetting that Caitlin could do no such thing as the remnants would be gone.

Patting himself down within a millisecond, he found that there was nothing wrong. Even more carefully that before, Barry continued through the poorly lit room. He checked for more traps but found none.

After checking all of the rooms in the large warehouse, he turned to leave, exiting through the main room. To his surprise, there is someone there.

Suspicious, Barry walks slowly around to face the hooded person in the chair. They are tied very securely to the chair and, from what he can tell, their clothes are ragged and ripped. Carefully, after a moment’s thought, he lifts the sack from over the person’s head.

A woman in her twenties blinks in the sparse light. For a moment, she stares blindly ahead before she finally sees Barry. She jumps violently and the chair tumbles backwards, with her in it.

Barry catches the chair before it hits the ground, and sets her upright. She is crying and when he starts undoing her ropes, at a normal speed so he doesn’t freak her out, she begins to struggle.

“Don’t hurt me!” She cries in a raspy whisper. Barry looks affronted at this. He’s a superhero after all.

“I won’t. I’m here to help you. Let’s get you to the hospital.”

She doesn’t reply, only whimpers wordlessly as he gets her out of the chair. He helps her to stand, but as soon as he lets go, she begins to fall. He grabs her softly by the shoulder, to steady her. She is shaking so badly that her teeth are chattering.

Barry, seeing her condition, thinks of the booby trap at the door, and wonders whether she has been exposed to the same chemicals as Terra Michaels.

“I need to get you to the hospital.”

The woman shakes her head vehemently. She lifts a trembling hand to point down the hallway. Barry was sure he had checked there before, but he had thought the same thing about the main room.

“What is it?”

“The...others.” She says, shivering now. Barry, always the gentleman, wishes that he had something to cover her with. It’s not like he had a _cape_ he could remove on a whim, like a certain someone he knew.

“Can you stand on your own? Will you be okay for _just_ a moment here by yourself?” He asks the unnamed woman kindly. She shakes her head again and he is unsure what to do. He lowers her back onto the chair.

Within a second of letting go, he speeds away toward where she pointed. In the room beyond, he finds no one. Just some empty glass cases, large enough to house two large horses. When he returns to her, she is staring off into space, a glazed look over her eyes. When he wraps his arms under her and picks her up, bridal-style, she doesn’t even twitch.

He leaves the warehouse at his normal speed and arrives at Star Labs within a few moments. Cisco and Caitlin run into the room as Barry tucks the unknown woman into their hospital bed.

 


	4. Cynthia Jackson

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The blonde woman in their hospital bed, who is she?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another transitory chapter...Setting a few things up. Be ready for action next chapter! 
> 
> Enjoy your reading. Two chapters in one session! You're welcome!

Barry puts his finger to his lips and gestures for them to walk to the other room. They follow him silently until they are out of hearing range.

“I sent you out to help people not to bring back a hot date!” Cisco says, throwing his hands into the air. “Honestly, Barry, you are not your normal self this week.”

“She was in the warehouse, tied up, - _obviously_ not our Meta- and when I told her I would bring her to a hospital, she freaked. I couldn’t just leave her there, and this was the second best option.” Barry turns his attention to Caitlin, “Will you look her over when she wakes? She just fainted.”

“Do you want us to let you know when she wakes? Are you going to go meet Iris?” Caitlin asks.

“Iris?” Barry looks away from the door leading to the unconscious woman to meet Caitlin’s eyes. “Why Iris?”

“She called. She wanted--”

A scream from the other room interrupted Caitlin. They all ran to see their patient, Barry staying at normal speed. The blonde woman on the bed was awake and staring around, looking disheveled and terrified.

“Where am I? Who are you?” She scans the room in quick intervals, her eyes never stopping moving.

“I’m Cisco, she’s Dr. Snow, and this is the Flash. Do you remember what happened to you?” Cisco responded in a soft voice, chewing on a licorice stick.

Her eyes stopped on him. “I was just...in my apartment. And then,” she paused, looking down at herself. “I am here.” She flips the sheets away from her legs, almost out of instinct. Then she jumps. “What am I _wearing_?”

The others look at her outfit, and then at Barry.

“What?” He asks, incredulous.

“Nothing.” Caitlin and Cisco say in unison. They all turn back to the woman in the bed.

“What’s your name?” Caitlin asked, stepping forward with a stethoscope. The woman looked at her with fear for a moment, but let Caitlin approach as she replied.

“C-Cynthia. Cynthia Jackson.” She stumbles over the words.

“Where do you live, Cynthia?” Barry asks, thinking about the other victims.

“Pennsylvania. But I’ve been staying in my friend’s apartment for the last…” Her voice fades out as a horror crosses her face. “What day is it?”

“Saturday, the thirteenth.” Cisco responds, walking over to sit down in a chair.

Her forehead wrinkles. “What month?”

“September.” Barry says, incredulously.

“September?” Cynthia asks. “But it was only June…”

Barry and Cisco share a look as Caitlin intercepts to ask Cynthia several quiet medical questions. The boys make a quiet exit into the Cortex, trying to not disturb them.

“I’m going to call Joe.” Barry pushes his earpiece, which is, in addition to a speaker connecting to Star Labs, a Bluetooth device that Cisco hooked up to his phone.

“That’s probably a good idea.” Cisco says and sits down at the computer desk. He begins to work on the computer and Barry walks away, to concentrate better.

“Barry?” Joe answers on the first ring. “What did you find?”

“An empty warehouse and a girl. You might wanna come over here. She said she didn’t want to go to the hospital, but she was not looking so good. I decided to bring her to Star Labs. I think she may have some information. She is in shock, I think, but she’s not bouncing off the walls just yet, so I don’t think she is like the other woman who was found.”

“Okay, well I’ve got to run by and pick up Iris. She wanted a ride over to the docks because of some news story coverage. But I will be there within twenty minutes.”

When Joe finally arrives, half an hour later, Caitlin is finished with her examination and has started the tests on Cynthia’s blood to look for chemicals. Joe enters the room where Cynthia is sitting and they spend the next twenty minutes talking about what happened.

Joe pops his head out of the open door and gestures to Barry, who is still in his super-suit. Barry approaches and asks in a quiet voice, “What?”

“She wants to go home. To her friend’s apartment anyway.” Joe replies, a little louder.

“Okay…?” Barry turns it into a question, his voice the normal volume.

“Will you take me home?” A voice from inside the room behind them startles the two men. Barry turns to Cynthia, who is standing behind them in a Star Labs sweatshirt and sweatpants obviously borrowed from Caitlin. She is wringing her hands and shifting her weight back and forth between her feet. She meets Barry’s eyes for a moment before she looks at her feet again.

“Sure, I suppose.” Barry says, hesitantly. He walked over to her, and mimed picking her up. “Will this be okay?” Cynthia nods and he lifts her easily into his arms. 

 

~~~

 

Barry, carrying Cynthia, arrived at the apartment she had described, in downtown Central City. He put her down carefully, fully aware of what had happened before on multiple occasions. He looked her over to make sure she wasn’t on fire before he completely let her go.

Cynthia reaches up to the top of the doorway, and finds a key there. She looks at it with relief and puts it into the lock. She laughs breathily as she turns to Barry.

“Well, hopefully, everything is where I left it.” She opens the door and peeks inside. Then she pushes the door open all the way and steps inside.

“Is it?” Barry follows her. The apartment around them is relatively small; it has an average living room with a couch and a television.

“Yes. Thank goodness.” She looks around and the relief is like a weight lifted from her shoulders. “Would you mind if I went into the other room and changed? This,” she gestures at her clothes, “is not really my style. And I’m sure Doctor Snow would like her clothes back.”

Barry nods and sits down on the couch.

“I’ll be back in just a minute or two.” Cynthia smiles and rushes into the bedroom to their left. Barry sits patiently on the couch until a loud _crash_ and the sound of glass breaking sends him shooting up and he runs into the bedroom without a second thought.

He stops when he sees the disaster that awaits him. Laughter echoes around him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who is laughing? ;)


	5. Pandemonia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry looks for Cynthia, but meets someone completely different and unexpected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Here's the fifth chapter! I changed her name (again), so the title is different than I was expecting. SO MUCH HAPPENS IN THIS CHAPTER. Wow. 
> 
> Oh, and I reference Batman and (at one point) Barry being kidnapped by Zoom. I just kinda added that in for fun. Plus, Batman and Joker will be TALKED about a lot in this story, but I'm not planning on making them characters.

Barry enters the disastrous bedroom, two seconds after being on the couch.

“Cynthia?” He calls, looking around for her. The room is completely destroyed. The windows are smashed out, the bed is overturned, all of the contents of the dresser are scattered over the floor. Strangely, however, the closet doors are open and when Barry looks inside, he sees the clothes are perfectly straight. 

Barry hears a high-pitched giggle above him. Instinctively, he looks up, but there is nothing and no one there. 

“Cynthia?” He calls again, but there is no answer. He sees movement from the corner of his eye and turns quickly toward the window. There is nothing there. He steps toward it and sees the fire escape. He climbs out the window, being careful to avoid the glass. 

“Up here.” A voice matching the giggle from before sounds above him. 

He climbs up the fire escape, following the sound of the giggles. He reaches the roof, looking around for the source of the chaos downstairs. He sees a bright purple flash above him, and that’s when he sees... _ her. _

She smiles, flashing a mouth full of blindingly white teeth down at him from where her legs are wrapped around a bar above his head. The bar is connected to the top of a water tower and she is hanging off of it, facing him, upside down. 

"Who are you? Where’s Cynthia?" Barry asks, his voice clear and concise, despite the panic in his chest.

“She’s around.” The strange woman with vibrant violet-magenta hair that hangs around her face replies, flashing her impossibly-white teeth. 

"Now, who are  _ you _ my delicious little cherry?" She leers at him.

"The Flash..." Barry begins hesitantly, not entirely sure how she could be in Central without knowing who he is. His eyes do a quick circuit of the roof, noticing that they were, at least for the moment, alone. 

"Oh, I know that silly." Her voice is high-pitched, but has a silk tone to it. An image of her luring sailor men to their deaths on the high seas pops into Barry’s head. He lingers on the thought until her high giggle jerks him back to his surroundings and the problem at hand. 

“Where is Cynthia?” He growls. She only responds by giggling again, the sound amplifying off of the taller buildings around them. 

He is not entertained, however, and he demands a third time, with even more intensity, “Where. Is. She.” 

The strange woman flips off of her high perch, landing with cat-like grace on her feet. With a long, hollow sigh, she walks over to a table to his left. Barry hadn’t noticed the table or the lights set around the roof before, but he does now as she sits down on a chair and gestures for him to join her. 

He slowly shakes his head. She turns away from him, putting her back towards Barry. He hears a sad sigh from her.

“Oh  _ Honey _ , I don’t bite.” She says as she waves over her shoulder at him to join her. He takes several steps towards the table, disliking having her where he can’t see. He goes the long way around, keeping a safe distance from her. When he finally faces her, a blinding, maniac smile breaks across her face. As he looks at her more closely, illuminated by one of the lights, he sees that she is wearing a very-well designed doll-face mask. There are holes for her eyes and her mouth, obviously, but the rest of her face is covered. 

Her smile grows more manic until it begins to rival one that he once received from James Jesse. Her hazel-green eyes pierce his blue-green ones and he imagines that she can see straight into his soul. 

He breaks the gaze to make another quick scan of the roof in the dying light of dusk. However, the bad lighting makes it almost impossible for him to see more than a couple feet around him. He turns back to face her and she is staring at him, unblinkingly with her head cocked to the side.

“Do you like my candles?” She gestures around them, and his head jerks towards the spots of light. Only now does he realize that they are, indeed, candles. “I thought they might add a...romantic aspect to our evening,” she says, and when he meets her gaze, she is smiling again.

“Oh,” she giggles, “we haven’t officially met yet, have we? Silly me, how could I forget such a thing?” She stands from her seat. “I, my dear cherry, am Pandemonia.” She pulls out her short skirt around her and curtsies. 

He internally imagines Cisco’s reaction to a villain who named herself. Oh the outrage!

“And…” She mutters, her smile turning sour as she waits for him to reply. 

“The Flash,” he says shortly, not feeling the need to bow. 

“I’m Chaos.” A gruff voice suddenly sounds from behind Barry as he feels his arms being pinned to his back. He is slightly lifted off the ground, and is unable to react before he is deposited in the chair across from Pandemonia, who takes her seat again.

Chaos’s hands, wrapped around his arms, are like steel traps. Barry cannot even move an inch. Pandemonia smiles brightly at his captor, and turns her attention back to her little captive.

“Thank you, Chaos dear.” She says and then looks around, as if expecting something else. “Where is Dystopia?”

“Here, Mistress Pandemonia. I was getting more candles.” A woman comes into Barry’s line of sight, placing more candles on the table and lighting them. 

“Is it Tea Time already then?” Pandemonia asks, taking a candle from the new woman. 

“Yes, Mistress.” The large beast of a man behind Barry replies in a loud, rough voice. 

“Tea Time?” Barry asks, hoping they weren’t cannibals of some kind. He had yet to come across one in his life, but there was a first time for everything. 

However, Barry’s fears are slightly unrealistic and exaggerated. He realizes this when Dystopia sets a steaming cup of tea in front of him.

“Sugar? Milk?” She asks him, but he shakes his head no.

“Oh give him some anyway,” Pandemonia says, raising her cup of tea to her lips and drinking. Barry sits silently, kicking himself mentally at how stupid he is to have gotten captured by villains AGAIN. He watches as Dystopia adds a few cubes of sugar and a spoonful of milk to his tea. When she is done, Chaos leans down and breathes loudly in his ear.

“Don’t even  _ try _ to escape, or I will snap you like a twig. And not even  _ your  _ healing abilities will help you.” With that, the large man lets go of Barry’s arms. He then walks into Barry’s vision and puts a very large hand on Dystopia’s waist. Now that Barry can see them both more clearly, he realizes they too are masked. 

_ What have I gotten myself into? _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you think of the chapter??
> 
> PLEASE COMMENT. I'd love to know what you think of Pandemonia!


	6. Twenty Questions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry is kidnapped, chained to a chair, and now Pandemonia won't stop asking him questions about his life. Fun, fun, fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okkkaaaayyyyy, Chapter Six! Enjoy!!! 
> 
> (I had some difficulty writing this, so it may seem a little like they're playing 20 Questions, but it's mainly just setting up for the future. Thanks!)

“Dystopia, dear, will you go get us some little cakes? You know how I adore those things. And visit some of our other friends, will you?” Pandemonia says sweetly. Dystopia nods and leaves without another word.

“And Chaos, would you mind making our guest a little more comfortable? He looks a little...distressed.” She smiles at the large man. He then walks over to Barry, who is gripping his cup of tea and sipping cautiously.

Chaos reaches down and Barry feels cold steel clamp tightly around his legs, digging into his suit. He shifts uncomfortably before Chaos rests a heavy hand on his neck and squeezes slightly. Barry’s vision goes dark for a moment before Chaos removes his hand.

“Just for safety precautions.” Pandemonia sighs at the glare on Barry’s face. “I have a bit to discuss. And remember, I don’t bite.” She smiled before adding, quietly, “That’s Chaos’s strong-suit.”

Barry blanched, and gave the large man a terrified look, remembering the warning from before. He set down his cup of tea and then rested his hands on the table in front of him. A strange thought crosses his mind as he swallows his last sip.

_What if it was poisoned?_

Then he shakes his head, remembering he can’t be poisoned.

Pandemonia gently reaches over and grabs his hand. He is uncomfortable with this, but is afraid to move. Chaos is still standing over him, blankly ignoring the conversation, but keeping a close watch on Barry.

“Well, I feel like I don’t even know you yet, my dear little cherry!” Pandemonia comments and grabs his other hand. They look at each other, and he doesn’t answer.

“Why are you ignoring me?” She pouts, gripping his hand tightly. Barry is not sure how to answer, so he changes the topic.

“How long have you been in Central?”

“Depends…You’re avoiding the question though.”

Chaos leans down to whisper in Barry’s ear. “You might wanna answer her questions. Otherwise...well, it certainly won’t end well for you.” A shiver goes down Barry’s spine as Chaos straightens up. He is still unsure as to answer the question, and hesitates long enough that she sighs.

“Fine. How’s this? I will answer your question if you answer mine. Fair enough?” Pandemonia lets go of one of Barry’s hands to flip her shock of purple hair away from her face.

“Sure.” Barry responds half-heartedly.

“I’ve lived in Central my whole life...Though recently I’ve spent a lot of time on vacation, visiting _family_ further East. How about you?” She smiles at him and lets go of his other hand. He watches as she stands to stretch and he answers her question as she stands on her head.

“Same. Lived here my whole life.” Barry looks away from her as she giggles.

“So, what’s the perks of being...The Flash? Are you like immune to crime or something?” She lifted herself onto her hands and began walking on them.

“Not exactly. Speed, obviously...and well, that’s basically the only perk. How about you? Do you have...powers?” Barry replies hesitantly.

She simply smiles. “A girl can’t reveal all her secrets. Let’s save that one...for later.” She winks and flips over to stand up straight. She greets Dystopia as she comes back into Barry’s sight line, carrying a covered tray.

“Hello, Dystopia, darling.” Pandemonia offers her a smile.

“I have the cakes, Mistress.” Dystopia bows and places the tray on the table in front of Barry.

“Oh goody! Did you also get the album I asked for?”

Barry racks his brain to remember her mentioning an _album_ , but he can’t. When Pandemonia walks towards him, pulling her chair, he feels sweat building on his neck.

“Yes Mistress.” Dystopia removes the lid to uncover a small plate of miniature cakes. Underneath the plate is a large photo album which Dystopia removes from the tray. Then she picks up the tea pot, their cups, and the sugar and milk containers. She places them on the tray and walks away, carrying it on her hip.

Pandemonia sets her chair down next to Barry’s and sits in it. She leans her head on his shoulder, which causes him to freeze. “So, do you like your job?”

“Which one?” Barry responds. She lifts her head to look at him.

“You have multiple jobs? How many?”

“Two, technically. It’s not like being a superhero pays money.” Barry laughs and remembers Cisco’s suggestion that he simply quit his day job and run around as the Flash all day. “Plus, I enjoy my day job.”

“See, I would’ve thought that being a superhero _would_ pay. Don’t people try to pay you?” She smiles at this, and wraps her hands in his.

“Well, yes,” Barry says, his mouth twisting to the side. “But a **real** hero doesn’t accept money.”

“Oh. Are you talking about Batman?” She smirks when he gives a start. “Don’t give me _that_. I’m sure you’ve seen the Batmobile. How do you think he pays for all his nifty little gadgets, if someone doesn’t pay him?”

“I...hadn’t thought about it.” Barry mutters. This however, is a lie. He knew where Batman got his money. Batman got it from the same place that the Green Arrow did, from his family’s wealth. So, technically, Barry supposed he was getting paid, in a way.

“What’s your favorite color?” Pandemonia asks randomly, interrupting Barry’s train of thought. “Is it red?”

Barry sighs heavily. If one more person asked him if his favorite color was RED, he was going to murder Cisco. “No, not red.” Barry rolls his eyes. “Green, actually.”

“Like the color of your eyes?” Pandemonia strokes his cheek, which makes him jump. He instantly flinches away from her hand, which makes her frown. She leans away from him and pouts for a minute or so. Then, like someone flipped a switch in the air, the tension disappears and she’s smiling broadly again.

“So, you have two jobs, your favorite color is green like your gorgeous eyes...any hobbies?” She picks up two of the cakes in front of her, eats one, and offers him the other. He takes it, hesitantly, and nibbles on the edge.

“Oh!” Pandemonia exclaims. “I almost forgot! Here’s one of _my_ hobbies.” She pushes the plate of cakes off of the photo album and pushes it towards Barry. She gestures for him to open it.

Barry reluctantly pulls the album towards him. He opens the cover and blanches when he sees the title on the first page.

_My Little Cherry: The Gorgeous Flash_

Beneath the title is a picture of him, one he recognizes as one that was featured in _The Central City News_ . He flips the page, just out of terrified curiosity, to see a card signed at the bottom by **The Flash** which he, again, recognized. He remembers the **one** meet-and-greet that Cisco and Iris had talked him into where he signed HUNDREDS of pieces of paper, arms, and pictures for the people of Central.

As he quickly closes it, afraid to see any more, he shivers involuntarily.

“Do you like it?” She watches his face for his reaction, and he tries his hardest to keep a poker face.

“It’s, um, very interesting.” He says aloud, though inwardly he is stifling the urge to yell _NO!_ But, he knew that if it slipped out, Chaos would be more than willing to rip his arms from his torso, and it probably wouldn’t take much effort. Plus it would hurt. A lot.

“So, do you have someone special in your life?” Pandemonium asks suddenly, which makes Barry begin to wonder if she has ADD.

“No, not really.” Barry sighs.

“Oh,” she smiles. She glances away, and when she turns back to him a new glint is in her eye. “What do you think of Supervillains? From what I’ve heard, you’re on pretty good terms with Captain Cold. If rumors are to be believed, he even knows your name!”

Barry doesn’t respond immediately, trying to think of a way to avoid bringing Leonard Snart into the conversation.

“Supervillains...I am not a fan of that term, necessarily.”

“Really? You don’t think it applies to people like...Joker?” The tone in her voice surprises Barry. It almost sounds as if...she knows Joker?

“Do you...know Joker?” Barry asks.

“Who doesn’t know about Joker?” Pandemonia replies with a smirk. Then she returns to her line of questioning. “So, what do you think of-”

“BARRY!”

A loud, annoyed voice sounds in Barry’s ear and it makes him jump. Without waiting for an answer, Cisco’s annoyed voice continues.

“You better not be hitting on that girl! Where ARE you? I thought we were going to hang ooouuuuuuttttt? You’ve been there for two hours!”

Barry doesn’t know whether or not he should respond and when he opens his mouth, Chaos cracks his knuckles behind him. Barry shuts his mouth quickly.

“Wh-” Pandemonia is again interrupted. This time, there is a loud crash, the sound of smashing glass, and manic laughter from the street below them. Dystopia and Chaos, who were only slight presences until that moment, jump into action.

“We’re sorry Mistress!” Dystopia cries. She rushes to the edge of the roof and looks down. Whatever is down below them is a bigger priority at the moment.

“Go on.” Pandemonia sighs. “The both of you. Make sure our friends our safe.” Dystopia and Chaos bow to her and then rush to the door to the stairs. They are gone within moments, and Barry can barely hear the manic laughter. It has moved further down the street.

Pandemonia and Barry lock gazes for a moment. Then Pandemonia sighs and stands. She steps away from the table and stretches.

“Until next time, my little cherry.” She smiles, almost sadly. Then she walks back over to him, leans down, and kisses him lightly on the cheek. He jumps again at this, but before he can react fully, she is gone.

Barry looks around for a moment before he vibrates out of his chains. He would have done it earlier, but with the giant of a man named Chaos standing behind him, the likelihood he would get away unharmed seemed less likely.

“Barrrryyyyyy.” Cisco’s voice scares Barry, who taps his speaker connected to his ear.

“I’ll be right there, I swear.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Barry escapes! Yay!
> 
> (And I've always thought that maybe it's Cisco whose favorite color is red! Barry didn't choose the color after all. :) So, I added the little comment, for fun.)


	7. A Trip To Gotham

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry makes a trip to Gotham to talk to Batman.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...I am apparently enjoying proving myself wrong. I ended up making Batman a character after all! 
> 
> Barry and Batman talk a bit. This is mainly a chapter about Pandemonia and her background. 
> 
> Enjoy!

Barry was tired of Cisco’s incessant questions. Barry was feel sort of guilty about lying to Caitlin and Cisco about where he had been, but it was just...embarrassing to tell them that he got kidnapped,  _ again _ . He kept avoiding discussion of Cynthia, and every time one of the others brought her up, he felt the guilt stab him in the chest again. 

He hadn’t  _ meant  _ to get distracted by Pandemonia. But it’s hard to focus on other things when a villain and her crazy goon have chained you to a chair. 

Barry was tired of talking to Cisco, and so he went home early. He avoided Joe as well, knowing that he was probably going to be able to tell that something was wrong with Barry. 

Barry didn’t know why he all of sudden was avoiding his friends, family, and, most especially, Iris. He only knew that he had gone for an evening run and all of a sudden, he looked up and he was in Gotham.After a stunned moment, where Barry thinks over the blurred trip, he shrugs. He’s here. He might as well enjoy the day, or rather, night. 

Looking down, he realizes he is not wearing his super suit, and is actually wearing his sleep-clothes. He glances at his watch, which he remembers only after looking at it, that it is broken. He doesn’t know what time it is, exactly. He guesses somewhere after midnight. 

_ Is Batman home?  _  He asks himself as he walks down the street. He pulls out his phone and, as he is pushing the buttons, a shape moves in his peripheral vision. 

“Barry, what are you  _ doing  _ in the middle of the night, in your pajamas?” A gruff voice asks from the darkness. Barry turns toward his friend with a smile.

“Oh, you know...sleep running.” 

“Isn’t the term sleep  _ walking _ ?” Batman replies with a smirk. 

Then he replies, much more seriously, “But really, Barry, what are you doing here?”

“Well,” Barry starts, “it’s a bit of a long story. Can we eat? I’m starved.”

 

“So, do you know exactly how many people are missing? Have you found any connections between them?” Batman asks solemnly ten or so minutes later, after listening to Barry go on about his last couple days. He leans back in his chair, the legs scraping on the stone floor of the Batcave. 

Barry frowns in response, his face flushing as he guiltily replies, “No. No connections that I could find.” Seeing the spark of disappointment in Batman’s eyes, he continues. “So, have you heard of this  _ Pandemonia _ ?” 

Batman weighs his words before replying. “No, I haven’t heard of her. Though Joker has been on the quiet side, for him anyway.” 

“Wait. I thought he was in the Asylum…?” 

“No, Harley Quinn helped him escape about six months ago.” Batman sighs heavily before continuing. “That’s pretty normal. But what bothers me is how off the radar he’s been. Even his crew has been MIA. It makes me...concerned.” He rubs his eyes over his mask. “That’s not to say that I haven’t been busy; Riddler and Two-Face have been running around like they are trying to take advantage of the Joker’s absence.”

“Sounds like you’re busy…” Barry stands up from the table between them and stretches. “Sorry to bother you...I was just hoping you knew something about Pandemonia and her goons.”

“Goons? Who are they?”

“A giant brute named Chaos and a small dark woman named Dystopia. I didn’t see their faces-”

Batman interrupts Barry with: “Did you say  _ Chaos _ ?”

“Yeah…” Barry says, stunned by Batman’s reaction. “Do you know him?”

“Oh, I know him. He used to be one of Joker’s main muscles and Dystopia, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve almost gotten Joker-gas thanks to her and her traps. She and Chaos are married and a  _ very _ deadly combo. From what I know, Chaos is immune to Joker-gas. I hope they don’t try to trap you with any of that.”

Barry snickers at the look on Batman’s face. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure they already did. It didn’t even bother me.”

Batman looks at him gravely, not entertained by his laughter. “Barry that stuff kills people.”

“Not me apparently.” Barry yawns widely; Batman rolls his eyes. 

“Well, back to Chaos and Dystopia. I don’t see Joker just letting them  _ go _ . If they’re with Pandemonia, that means Joker trusts her,  _ explicitly _ . Which also means that she is probably working with Joker. Don’t trust her, Barry. If she is as close to Joker as I think she is, then she won’t hesitate to kill you, and anyone else in Central, in a...well in a flash. No pun intended, of course.” Batman finishes with a small smile. Barry sighs and then he shakes his head.

“That sounds just  _ great _ . Thanks for the food. Can I crash at the mansion for a few hours? I’m beat. I did just run all the way here.” 

Batman smiles, “Go ahead, Barry. Just tell Alfred I’m off to find out what’s going on with the Joker.” Batman stands and walks over to the Batmobile. He waves a goodbye to Barry, who watches him drive away. Then Barry gathers the dishes on the table and within moments, he is standing in the Wayne Mansion. 

He places the dishes in the sink, informs Alfred of what Batman said, and then he crashes in one of the many guest rooms. 


	8. The Reporter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Iris West becomes an interest of Pandemonia.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! So, my brother and I are actually co-writing this. Sort of. He is good with making stories and whatnot up but I am good at tying everything together. So, every time we hang out, we write. And he is moving out soon, so the chapters may not be updated as fast as they have been.   
> (He and I wrote THREE LAST NIGHT!)
> 
> OH! And the Trip to Gotham lasted about two or three days, by the way. I just didn't go into great detail about much more of it.
> 
> Enjoy!

The morning Sun is shining brightly through the window as Pandemonia flips through her photo album. She sits comfortably on the couch that, only yesterday, the gorgeous Flash, had sat on. She pauses as Dystopia walks in, a tray of tea on her arm. She hands Pandemonia a newspaper and sets the tea tray on the table in front of her.

“Thank you dear. Is Chaos almost finished with breakfast?” Pandemonia asks with a smile as she puts down the photo album and picks up the _Central City Picture News_.

“Not just yet. And I wanted to apologize, again, for the distraction during last night’s visit with Mister Flash.” Dystopia bows and leaves the room to check on breakfast for her mistress.

Pandemonia searches through the paper, scanning quickly through the obituaries. As Chaos enters the room with a plate covered with an omelet, bacon, and sausage, she says, smiling, “Thank you.”

“Is our friend gone then?” Chaos asks as he sets the food in front of her.

“No, thankfully. I am sure she is still causing problems for the physicians at that joke of a hospital.” She laughs lightly and takes a bite out of a sausage.

“If you don’t mind me asking, why did you let Flash go last night? Won’t he cause more problems?” Chaos frowns worriedly.

“Oh my dear Chaos. What fun is the game if there is no one to _play_ with?” She smiles at him and waves him off. Both he and Dystopia leave their leader in the room, alone.

“Oh my little cherry,” she whispers as she flips back to the front page of the newspaper. She caresses the picture of the Flash that graces the page. “Where do you run off to, I wonder.”

Just then, the text beneath the picture catches her eye. Particularly the byline. The name: Iris West...Pandemonia is sure she’s seen the name before. Putting the paper aside for a moment, she picks up the photo album again. Determinedly, she flips to the pages she is looking for, the ones containing all the articles written about the Flash in the last year.

_Iris West. Iris West. Iris West._

Indeed, all of the articles, _every single one_ , were written by this “Iris West.” As a manic grin crosses her face, she traces the name again.

“Iris West...What can I do with you?”

 

Barry is enjoying himself, sitting with Iris at their normal table in Jitters. His trip to Gotham (which lasted a few days) was informative, to say the least. To learn that Pandemonia not only had a connection to Joker, but that one of Joker’s thugs had told Batman -after a process that Barry had not wanted to be privy to- that Joker considered her...family.

Which was an odd concept, Batman had said. He had never heard of Joker having such an attachment to anyone but Harley. And occasionally, Joker was known to treat her as disposable. So, having someone Joker considered _family_ running around Central, obsessing over the Flash, concerned Barry. It concerned him very greatly.

But for the moment, Barry has put all thoughts of Gotham out of his mind and is simply enjoying the conversation.

“...So, then I smacked his stupid wig off his head and everyone in the office laughed.” Iris finishes her story with a laugh and Barry smiles brightly at her.

“Sounds like you got him back for that comment about the Flash,” Barry comments with a wink.

“Yeah, I can’t believe he said that, especially during the first live phone interview with _the_ Flash!” She growls and then stands to get another cup of coffee. “Do you want another one?”

“Yes, please. Tea, with milk and sugar.” Barry waves at his mug and she picks it up and takes it with her.

“Tea…?” She mutters under her breath as she walks away. “He hates tea.”

Barry leans back in his chair, and does a quick scan of the room and the street outside. He is simply doing this out of habit. But something he sees interests him.

“Hey Iris,” he says when she comes back. “Do you see that Ice Cream truck?”

“Oh, yeah. Those have been around for the last couple days. They have been kinda popping up everywhere. The ice cream is actually quite good.”

Barry looks at Iris, cocking one eyebrow. “Really?”

“What?” She responds, annoyed and entertained at the same time. “I like ice cream. Anyway, they’ve gotten really popular and, to be honest, I’m not surprised that there is one here. They get a lot of customers from Jitters, especially in the evenings.”

Barry shakes his head at her and leans forward to drink his tea. Taking a sip, he smacks his lips together. “Not enough sugar!” He exclaims.

Iris cautiously watches him as he adds spoon after spoon of sugar into his tea. “Uh, Barry?” She asks hesitantly.

“What?” He responds absentmindedly, stirring his drink and taking a sip. “Ah much better.”

“You almost have more sugar than tea. And speaking of tea, when did you start drinking that? I remember in High School when I tried to get you started on it, you threw your cup _across the room_ and spat it all over the table.”

Barry blinks, stunned. “Did I really do that? Huh. Guess my taste buds changed or something.”

“When did you even try tea?” Iris laughs as she shakes her head. She drinks her _Flash_ coffee.

“Uhm…” Barry hesitates. However, before he has to reply, two men in ill-fitting suits, wearing top hats (of all things!) burst into Jitters. They walk straight towards Barry and Iris, stopping when they reach their table.

“Something I can help you with?” Iris asks, taken aback as the tall men lean towards them with very interesting expressions on their face. For a moment, Barry wracks his brain for where he had seen that manic smile before. Then, the men yell. In unison.

“IT’S HAPPY TIME. IT’S HAPPY TIME. WE FOUND THE FLOWER GIRL.” They wave their arms and shout for another few seconds before Barry notices their hands. At first he sees the duct tape, and then, as he sees the long silver tubes gripped in their right hands. Lastly, he notices the bright red buttons as the men move their thumbs.

Barry has less than three seconds to react. And with those three seconds, he wraps his arm around Iris’s waist and has her outside and behind a car as a loud _BANG!_ issues from behind them.


	9. Confetti & Kidnapping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry is having a stressful day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who puts confetti in a BOMB?

Barry leaves Iris behind the car and runs back to Jitters. However, when he opens the door, flower confetti, half a foot high flows out around his feet. Noticing that the coffee shop is _not_ blown to pieces, Barry takes two seconds to run back to Iris, get his bag, and change into his suit.

When he runs back into Jitters, he sees that there is minimal damage to the shop, if several inches of confetti covering everything: people, food, cups, the floor, could be called “damage.” The only _real_ problem Barry finds is the men who were, Barry assumes, the source of this disaster. They are laying on the floor, covered in confetti.

However, under the confetti, Barry sees that there are bright red burns on their chests, legs, and faces. They are also unconscious.

With a heavy sigh, he hates carrying more than one person at a time, he lifts them both up and runs them to the nearest hospital. He makes sure one of the E.R. doctors is taking care of them before he returns to Iris, changing back into his normal clothes as he goes.

“What was with that?” Iris asks him as he comes stand next to her. The police sirens echo around them and she is wrapped in a blanket from one of the EMTs.

“I don’t really know…” Barry answers, semi-honestly. He had a _hunch_ about who might be behind that particularly strange attack on Jitters. But he didn’t want to be overheard, and anyway, Pandemonia doesn’t know who he is….Right?

At that moment, Detective Joe West arrives. He instantly walks over to two of his children and wraps his arms around them securely.

“Are you okay?” He asks, pulling back to look at Iris. She nods and gestures to Barry. Joe smiles for a moment before his eyes turn toward Jitters behind them.

“Barry, maybe you should take a closer look. The other officers mentioned that the Flash was here and took two men to the hospital.” Joe offers Barry his gloves, and Barry takes them.

“The bombers, if you can call them that.” Barry replies with a sigh. He pulls his forensic gloves over his hands and walks over towards the mess. Joe follows him, and Iris sits down on the edge of the curb, her head aching. She is unaware that a man inside an Ice Cream truck watches her closely.

 

“Have you seen Iris?” Joe asks Barry as they sit down at the dinner table.

“Not since this morning. She said she felt well enough to go to work and I couldn’t talk her out of it. Where’s Wally?” Barry sighs, dishing out the food.

“He’s working on a project at the school. So what happened in Jitters this morning then?” Joe asks, changing the subject. “I could tell you weren’t saying everything.”

“Well, from what I could tell, Johnson Adams and Hunter Dallon had bombs of a sort in the insides of their suits. When they hit the detonators, the confetti exploded outwards, causing the two of them to get burned.”

“And…?” Joe can tell Barry is not sharing everything.

“I think it’s from one of the new villains that I’ve come across recently. I don’t wanna talk about it now though.” Barry tries to finish the conversation, shoveling food into his mouth. But this doesn’t fly with Joe.

“Barry.” Joe warns. “I don’t know what--”

Joe’s phone rings loudly, cutting him off. He sighs, frustrated, and reaches into his pocket to pull it out.

“Hello?” He answers. He listens for a few moments before he shoots up out of his chair, slamming his phone shut without another word. Barry follows him as he stomps out towards his Police cruiser.

“Where are we going? What’s going on?” Barry asks as Joe slides into the driver’s seat and growls for Barry to get in.

“CCPN.” Joe replies as he starts the car and flips on the sirens and the lights.

 

When they arrive at CCPN, the place is surrounded by police cars and what looks like a bomb squad.

“Joe?” Barry asks, terrified. He hadn’t rushed over here earlier because he was worried about Joe and his inability to focus on the road. Barry had grabbed the wheel at least three times on the way over, and now, looking at Joe’s face, he feels a cold feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Joe doesn’t respond as he runs into the building, Barry on his heels. Captain Singh is standing in the doorway of the first floor and stops Joe with a hand to his shoulder.

“Joe. She’s not in there.” The Captain says, trying to calm down his Detective.

“What happened?” Joe demands.

“Well, there was a maniac who walked in here, just like someone did earlier this morning with Jitters. Some guy who screamed at everyone to not move or he would blow the place up. He demanded that he be put on the news, so they took out their cameras and recorded him. But apparently, while everyone’s attention was on the lunatic at the front door, a giant of a man entered from the back with a machine gun. He told everyone to get down on the floor, and when one of the men refused, he crushes his arm with one hand. The guy is at the hospital with all of the bones and muscles in that arm ruined. The doctors say that he probably won’t be able to use it ever again.”

The Captain takes a deep breath before continuing. “The people in the front didn’t tell us any of this, of course. They had no idea there were two hostiles in the building. We learned this all from the witnesses from the back room. They told us that after the man with the machine gun crushed the man’s arm, he told them to get on the floor again. They listened this time and then...well, then he seemed to single out Iris. Linda Park, who was next to her, told me personally that he walked straight over to them. He called her ‘Flower Girl,’ and dragged her away like a rag doll. She was kicking and screaming the whole time.

“After the second hostile dragged away Iris, the security was able to take down the bomber, and the Bomb Squad disabled it. We are all lucky it didn’t go off; it was a real one this time.” Singh rubs his eyes and looks cautiously at Joe as he finishes, “Now, Joe. I need you not to go beserk. We _will_ find her. I am hoping we can somehow contact the Flash and let him know we need his help. I need you to focus on the case, though. No one is sure who the bomber is. He isn’t from Central, we know that for certain. But I’m going to need your help on this. Can you do that?”

Joe takes a moment, flicking his eyes to his left where Barry has had to lean against the wall to support himself, before he answers. Barry meets his eyes and Joe knows that the Flash will not rest until he finds Iris.

“Okay. I’ll try. What do you want me to do?”

Barry walks away from the Captain and Joe, unable to concentrate on their conversation. All he can do at the moment is kick himself mentally. He knows now, with complete and utter certainty, that Pandemonia is behind all this.

What he doesn’t know is...Why? Why Iris? Out of all his villains, only Pandemonia and Girder have targeted Iris.

Barry is haunted by this realization, and by the question of _why_ as he begins his search for Iris.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pandemonia, that's who. :)


	10. Friends in Cages

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Iris is kidnapped and stuffed into a cage. How fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Familiar faces are bound to be seen here. ;)
> 
> Also, this next little bit (this chapter and the next two) cover about a week's worth of time, fyi.

Iris awakes suddenly, coming into the world of consciousness with a gasp. There is a large, hulking man standing over her, an upturned water bottle in his hand, dripping water on her face. Iris’s eyes jerk to the man’s face. 

However, there is not a man staring back at her, but a demon or the face of one. She blinks and the mask on the man’s face comes into focus. The full-face mask is black with lines like a skull and red-painted fangs. His darkly colored eyes almost look black in the dim light. They are very cold and do nothing to help Iris feel comforted. 

“Good. You’re awake.” The large man growls above her. She jerks away from him as he leans down closer to her face. Panic rips through her as the memories of her kidnapping come back to her. This man, gripping her tightly by the arm. The heat of his bad breath on the back of her neck as he tugged a sack over her head; the large gun pressed to her spine. The fear that consumed her until the chloroform knocked her out...

“What do you want from me?” She hisses at him now, trying to fight the terror inside of her. She will  _ not _ be bullied into submission.

“The Flash.” The large man’s eyes glint with malice as he screws the lid back onto the water bottle and tosses it at the ground. With reflexes fast as a cobra, he grabs Iris and shoves her into a large cage to their right. She immediately tries to escape, but he slams the door in her face, clicking in the bars. Then the large man yanks on a chain Iris had not noticed before, and quickly, the larger-than-life human birdcage rises into the air. 

“Enjoy your stay,” the man calls up to her, and he walks away, chuckling darkly.

Iris, who had fallen to her knees when he jerked on the chain to raise the cage, unsteadily rises to her feet. As soon as her legs support her, she rushes to the barred door and goes to open it.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

Iris whips around at the sound of a woman’s croaky voice behind her. It takes a moment, but finally Iris locates the sound of the voice. In a cage slightly below and left of Iris, a woman dressed in dirty clothes that have a sense of familiarity that Iris cannot place, is leaning against her own cage. 

“Why?” Iris asks, kneeling down the better to see the woman.

“Didn’t you see them, down below?” The woman asks in return. Iris glances down the ten feet that is between her and the ground. Searching the ground by the dim light that she can’t quite find the source of, Iris finally spots what the woman must be referencing. In the corners of the large room yellow-gold eyes flash out at her.

“What are they?” Iris asks, looking towards her neighbor again.

“Wolves,” the woman’s voice cracks with sadness on the one word. “Chaos keeps them fed well enough, but they are always hungry. They never pass up free food.”

Iris shivers as that sinks in, and she makes the connection that ‘Chaos’ must be the large man from before. “Aren’t wolves supposed to be...wild?” 

“Yes, but he’s basically the Alpha of their pack.” Her neighbor slumps down further in her cage so she is almost laying, looking up at Iris. Iris doesn’t respond for a moment, trying to shake off the images of ravenous wolves tearing someone to pieces.

“I’m Iris,” she finally says after several moments of silence. Her neighbor opens her eyes for a second, then replies in a soft voice.

“Cynthia.” 

 

Barry has been growing more and more frantic for the last five hours. He has covered virtually every  _ inch _ of Central City almost sixty times, but he has yet to find Iris. He is determined to keep looking, all day and night if he has to, and he only stops when Cisco tells him to come to Star Labs. It’s ‘urgent.’

“What’s going on? Did you find Iris?” Barry rushes into the lab, already looking around for her. But he only sees Cisco, Caitlin and Joe, looking worriedly at him.

“No, not yet Barry,” Caitlin begins. 

“We know you’re worried about her. We are too!” Cisco says. “But, Barry, we need you to stop. If we haven’t found her yet, we probably won’t get any farther right now. You need to take a break.” 

Barry looks at each of them in turn, leaving Joe for last. In Joe’s eyes, Barry can see the anger, desperation, and fear that he feels reflected back at him. Joe steps forward and puts a hand on Barry’s shoulder.

“Take a break son. You are no good to Iris if you run yourself ragged.”

“Besides, we need to know what you learned at Gotham! You never told us. What did Batman tell you?” Cisco asks, aggravation clear in his voice.

“He told me a lot. So much so, I don’t know where exactly to get started.” Barry sighs and rubs his eyes anxiously.

“Sit down, Bare, and tell us.” Joe pushes a chair towards Barry and Barry begins.

“It all started when I brought Cynthia home…”

 

Iris is not entirely sure how long she has been locked in this obnoxious birdcage, but she estimates it’s been at least two days. Chaos had brought her and Cynthia food and water at intermittent occasions and they had also been blindfolded and walked to a bathroom several times. 

On the whole, Iris had learned a lot the last few days. She had learned that Cynthia had been rescued by the Flash and then once again kidnapped. The poor woman was quite distraught about the whole thing; she preferred to listen to Iris talk about  _ her _ life and did not reveal many things about her own life despite Iris’s questions. She grew jumpy whenever Iris asked her, so Iris had simply told her about her life. 

Iris had told Cynthia about Barry -not mentioning that he was the Flash of course-, and how they had been friends since Elementary school. She had told her about her job at CCPN, her friends at Star Labs, and her dad. Cynthia had hung on every word and when Iris had ran out of things to talk about, they had passed the time by tearing up pieces of their plastic plates and throwing them at the wolves below. 

They were laying in their individual cages now, and Iris was almost asleep when Cynthia’s voice jerked her awake again.

“Do you think the Flash will rescue us?” 

Iris flips onto her stomach and crawls toward the bars so she can see her neighbor. Cynthia is laying on her back, eyes open and staring up; a look of fear has imbedded itself in her pretty hazel eyes. 

“I have no doubt, Cyn.” Iris says, hope filling her voice.

“How do you-”

The door below them slams open with a  _ crash! _ interrupting Cynthia and scaring the wolves. As a small woman enters the room, followed closely by Chaos, Iris watches Cynthia crawl to the edge of her cage to look down as well. 

“Bring  _ that _ one down for me, my love.” The small woman’s voice echoes up to them, her finger pointing at Cynthia’s cage.

“Yes, Dystopia, dear.” Chaos replies and walks toward the chains that hold them aloft.

“No!” Cynthia’s voice is full of fear as she scampers to the far edge of her cage. She glances up at Iris, tears running down her cheeks. “Don’t let them take me! Please, Iris!” 

However, Cynthia’s pleas are to no avail; already Chaos has begun lowering the cage. The moment Cynthia’s prison touches the ground, Chaos rips the door open and Dystopia walks into the cage. 

“Mistress Pandemonia would like to see you.” Dystopia smiles widely beneath her half-mask. Cynthia shakes her head vehemently.

“No, please, no.” Cynthia cries out, but Dystopia has already jumped forward. She wraps a cloth around Cynthia’s face, blocking off her mouth and nose.

“NO!” Iris screams down at them as she watches her friend fall to the ground, unconscious. Dystopia walks out of the cage and motions over her shoulder. 

“Pick her up for me will you, honey? I’ll let the Mistress know that she is on her way.” Dystopia walks to the open door on the far wall before she turns around again. This time, she turns her gaze to Iris.

“Oh, and you’re next dearie.” Dystopia smiles and walks out the door, Chaos quickly following; Cynthia is in his arms. 

Iris carefully crawls away from the edge of her cage and leans her back against the opposite side. She cannot stop her hands from shaking as she shuts her eyes, pleading aloud, “Barry, Barry where are you?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh Barry, wherefore art thou?


	11. Tea with a Maniac

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Iris meets Pandemonia. They have tea.

Iris sits in a dark room, lit only by a branch of candles set on the table in front of her. She is handcuffed to her chair and she is alone. Chaos had left only moments before; he had informed her that ‘Mistress Pandemonia’ would be with her shortly.

As Iris sits there, she can’t help but remember only a few minutes before…

Cynthia had been gone for a long time. When Chaos had finally re-entered the cage room, he was carrying her again. He placed her in her cage and closed the door; the cage was lifted until Iris could see inside it clearly.

Cynthia was pale and sweaty. She was also unconscious and Iris could hear her breathing raggedly. Iris called her name several times, but Cynthia did not so much as twitch. Iris stared at her, trying to make out what was clogged in Cynthia’s blonde hair. 

After a much too long moment, Iris realized it was blood…

 

_ BAM! _

Iris jumps as the door slams open. A violently-purple haired woman sweeps into the room and sits on the table in front of her. 

“Hello my dear Flower Girl.” The masked woman greets her warmly, crossing her legs so she sits like a kindergartener in a classroom. 

_ Flower Girl?  _ Iris racks her brain; she has heard that name before somewhere. However, before she can figure it out, the woman speaks again.

“How is my little cherry?” The woman smiles broadly, eyes glinting with humor at Iris’ confused expression.

“Who?” Iris is incredulous.

“The Flash: I call him my little cherry because he is  _ so  _ delicious-looking. And, he’s also someone I am sure you are very familiar with, Miss Reporter.” The woman winks at her.

Iris is not comfortable with this topic. She doesn’t like to discuss Barry’s alter-ego with her coworkers, let alone this psycho. 

“Who are you?” Iris asks her instead of answering the previous question. 

“I’m hurt,” the masked maniac replies, dramatically clutching at her heart. “I would have thought you would have figured it out by now.”

“Your goons called you ‘Mistress Pandemonia,’” Iris mutters under her breath.

“Indeed! Speaking of my devoted friends, it is almost tea time.” Pandemonia smiles benevolently before calling loudly out the still-open door, “Chaos dear!” 

“Yes Mistress? Did you want for something?” Chaos enters the room, carrying a tea tray in his arms. Pandemonia’s smile grows as she hops off the table and gestures for him to place the tray on the table.

“Just the tea, actually. Thank you, that will be all for now.” Pandemonia sighs happily and waves Chaos off. He begins to exit, but turns back when she says, “Oh, and treat Cynthia’s wound will you? We wouldn’t want her to be...uncomfortable.” 

Chaos nods and walks out. Iris watches him go, glaring after him. When she turns back to her captor, she sees that Pandemonia is smirking slightly as she pours tea into two flowered cups. Iris watches silently as Pandemonia adds several sugar cubes to each. 

“Here you are, Flower Girl.” Pandemonia scoots a cup towards her while sipping her own. 

Iris stares at the flowered cup for a moment, not moving to pick it up. “What’s with the ‘Flower Girl’ thing?” She gently pushes the cup a few inches away. Pandemonia pushes it back with a motherly sort of smile.

“An Iris is a flower, is it not?” Pandemonia sighs and drains her cup. She then pours herself another.

“I suppose…” 

“Why aren’t you drinking your tea? It’s not poisoned. That would just be a waste of perfectly good tea; plus, I would never drink something poisoned.” Pandemonia says, taking a long gulp of her tea. Iris does not budge and Pandemonia sighs again. “Oh come now, drink up.”

“No, thank you.” Iris says as politely as possible. 

Pandemonia sits there for a moment, staring into Iris’s eyes until Iris breaks the connection. Pandemonia’s smile dims a bit and slowly she puts her cup down. Then she stands and determinedly walks around the table towards Iris. 

Iris tries turning to keep Pandemonia in her sight, but the masked villain walks behind her chair and stops. Iris feels Pandemonia breathing behind her and a shiver goes down her spine. 

“I simply must  _ insist _ , my dear.” Pandemonia gently brushes the hair off Iris’s neck and Iris feels a  _ zing _ as if Pandemonia has shocked her. Before two seconds pass, Iris finds the cup in her hand and the tea sliding down her throat as she drinks the perfect-temperature tea. Even her pinky finger is sticking out. The cup is drained before Iris can stop herself.

Pandemonia walks away from behind her and returns to her seat. She is smiling even more broadly than before, but in her eyes there is a depth of seriousness that was not there before.

“Well, enough of the idle chatter. Let us get down to what I really wanted to talk about.” 

Iris’s hand slowly places the empty cup on the table in front of her and she stares at it for a moment, stunned. Then she glances up at Pandemonia, who is leveling a very serious gaze in her direction.

“What did you want to talk about?” Iris asks, unable to hide the shaking from her voice.

“No more questions from you; I just want to know about one thing and one thing only. The Flash. Everything relevant about him, please.”

Iris sits there, perturbed, for what seems an age before Pandemonia sighs heavily and looks over her left shoulder.

“Dystopia darling, get the Field of Flowers for me please.” 

“Yes Mistress; right away.” Dystopia’s soft voice comes from outside the door and Iris hears retreating footsteps down the hallway. 

“Field of Flowers?” Iris asks, fear and terror burning within her chest.

“Just a little something to assist you in talking, my dear. I would prefer to not use it, but as you seem very stubborn and unhelpful, I will have to…” Pandemonia trails off as Chaos walks into the room.

“One of our friends have wandered off, Mistress.” His deep voice rumbles in the quiet room as he bows low to Pandemonia.

“Oh dear. Again? Looks like I must cut our conversation short, Flower Girl.” Pandemonia turns to Iris and then walks out the door. She calls over her shoulder, “I’ll take care of it. Please return the Flower Girl to her room. Thank you.”

Chaos chuckles grimly and quickly undoes the handcuffs. “Now, are you going to behave yourself or must I revert to...violence?” His tone lifts at the last word, his eyes practically begging her to misbehave. Iris does not answer the large man, but she also does not struggle as he puts a blindfold over her eyes.

Iris tries very hard to concentrate on walking as Chaos leads her gruffly through cold rooms to the cage room. When he finally removes the blindfold and pushes her into her awaiting cage, she is exhausted. She is barely able to concentrate as Chaos jerks the chain to raise her into the air next to Cynthia’s cage.

“Are you alright?” Iris calls to her, not moving immediately. However, there is no answer and a cold feeling washes over her. She crawls towards the edge of her cage and peers over the edge. 

Next to her, Cynthia’s cage sways, empty; the door is open.


	12. Sleeping Flowers

Barry has passed frantic and has arrived at endless desperation. He is unable to eat, to sleep, or to work. Four days. His best friend has been missing for four days and despite lead after lead, they have found _nothing_.

Nothing!

How could Pandemonia hide this well? Villains in Central are never this sneaky; the only one he could think of with such complex plans was Captain Cold. But even he simply went after what he wanted and moved on.

What did Pandemonia want?

Barry doesn’t know and it is killing him. Cisco, Caitlin, and him have been searching almost non-stop for Iris for days. Joe got Captain Singh to issue a statewide BOLO for not only Pandemonia but Chaos and Dystopia as well. However, this had not been any help. Most people, even those in Gotham, didn’t know what any of them looked like.

And Barry had tried to help. But for some reason, every time he tried to describe them to anyone, the pictures in his head blurred. He didn’t understand and it scared him almost as much as Iris still being missing.

 

Barry swings by Star Labs to pick up some food and finds Cisco snoring on his desk, _again_. Barry nudges him awake to ask where Caitlin is and Cisco tells him, blinking sleep out of his eyes, that she went to the store for more food.

“Fine. But I’m going out again,” Barry sighs.

“No, Barry. You need to sleep! It’s been what, thirty-six hours since you had some real sleep? That’s not good and you know it.” Cisco’s worrying tone cracks with sleepiness. He yawns widely. “Just lay down and sleep and then you can get back to searching.”

Barry yawns in reply, shaking his head. “I don’t need sleep. I need answers. Did you find any more abandoned warehouses for me to search?”

“Not any that we haven’t already searched about fifty times. I keep telling you: I don’t think she is using an abandoned warehouse.” Cisco stands and then walks with Barry over to the other desk. “From what I can tell, it’s not her style; I think the abandoned warehouse we found earlier was just her drop point.”

“Drop point? What does that mean?” Barry snaps at Cisco, but Cisco is too tired to be bothered by this.

“It’s a sort of storing place. It’s obviously not their main base and now that we know about it, they aren’t likely to go back to it.”

“But everyone always goes back. They need places they know and they always use them as a base of sorts.” Barry shakes his head unsteadily.

“Let’s break this down Barry. I know you would normally understand, but we are all running on significantly less sleep than normal. Pandemonia is **not** like anyone else we have ever faced! She does not have any of the same codes, habits, or morals. She is a wild card. We need to stop trying to think about her like our normal Metas. She’s crazy new. Emphasis on the _crazy_.” Cisco is pacing the room, running his hands through his hair and frowning.

“Did you finally figure out whether she was Meta or not?” Barry sits down at the desk and watches Cisco pace.

“No, but honestly, I don’t know anyone else who can muddle _your_ memory. Since the Particle Accelerator explosion, you’ve been in perfect health. Perfect recall like no other, especially. But you struggling to describe what she looks like? That’s not like you Barry!” He looks at Barry, who has somehow found a mug and is drinking deeply from it.

“Barry! No more caffeine!” Cisco stomps over to Barry and goes to take the cup from him.

“It’s not coffee; it’s herbal tea.” Barry says, dancing out of Cisco’s reach.

“Wait. Tea? Since when do you drink tea? You have never-.” Cisco stops mid sentence, and turns back to face Barry slowly, realization dawning on his face.

At that moment, Caitlin walks in, weighed down with groceries. “I brought food,” she exclaims although they obviously see that.

Barry and Cisco help Caitlin with the groceries and then Cisco and Caitlin finally convince Barry to sleep some. When he is finally snoring in the other room, Cisco asks Caitlin, “When did Barry start drinking tea?”

“He doesn’t. He hates it; everyone knows that.”

 

 

Iris is dying of boredom and fear. She has been stuck in her cage for what seems like weeks, with only the short, terrifying visits from Chaos to add diversity to her life in captivity. Cynthia still has not been returned to her cage. On the other hand, Iris has discovered that there are a couple other occupied cages, but the residents are unfortunately quite incoherent. The men and women that are kept in the surrounding cages are not in any mental state for conversation. They range from drooling incoherency to violent outbursts.

Iris is worried this is going to happen to her or to Cynthia. The fact that she has not seen her new friend for a long time does not soothe her worries. After receiving one of her meals, Iris finally works up the courage to pester Chaos about her neighbor.

“Where’s Cynthia?” Iris asks him as he shoves a plastic plate with some sort of food on it at her. Chaos chuckles in reply and does not immediately answer. He simply shuts the door and locks it. He also adds a new lock onto it, but he does not raise the cage off the ground.

“Where is she?” Iris exclaims so loudly that her voice echoes off the far walls and the wolves, in their corners, growl.

“She is...around. She needed attention. Mistress loves her friends; she gave her what she needed.” Chaos walks to the door on the wall and glances back one more time. “I’m sure you’ll see her soon.” He shuts the door behind him and Iris stares at it.

Then the realization hits her: he didn’t put her back in the air. She instantly tries to slam the door open, to no avail. She leans against the bars for several minutes, anxiously looking around.

All of a sudden, Iris hears the panting of large lupine animals to her left and the wolves come into her sight. They jump at her from outside her cage and she unwillingly screams as she jerks backwards away from the bars. She sits in the middle of cage and watches as the wolves attack the edges of the bars. They are unable to get to her and eventually they grow bored. They stalk off back to their corners.

Iris estimates that she is left on the ground for about three hours before something changes. Chaos enters the room, whistling. The wolves, now as playful as puppies, romp towards him. They crowd around him, their tongues lolling out. He leans down and pets each one individually, giving them treats while looking them in the eyes. After he greets them all, he sends them to the corners.

“Now Flower Girl, I believe it is time to visit the Mistress.” Chaos turns to Iris and walks to her cage. He undoes the lock and swings the door open. Iris, who is sitting in the very middle of the cage, cringes away when he enters.

“Well, it seems like you learned _something_ to be sure.” Chaos wraps a large hand around her left arm and lifts her onto her feet. She tries to push down the urge to flee, knowing it would be futile. She saw the man at CCPN get his arm crushed just by Chaos’s _hand_. To have that much strength with his hand...Iris does not want to know how strong he really is.

As the blindfold blocks her view, Iris begins to shake violently. She loses all strength in her legs and begins to collapse before Chaos catches her. He swings her up and onto his shoulder like she weighs nothing more than a doll.

Chaos’s heartbeat is the only thing she can hear, pounding loudly next to her ear as they make their way through the rooms. Iris is unable to get her bearings. She tries to pay attention to where they are going: left turn, right, left. However, soon it all blurs together in her mind.

Their journey ends suddenly and Iris slides off Chaos’s shoulder with the momentum of his abrupt stop. He catches her as she begins to fall again. Then he sits her down in a cold wooden chair and jerks the blindfold off her eyes. She blinks in the bright room as Chaos secures handcuffs on her wrists and a flash of violet-magenta catches her eye.

Iris glances to the color and finds Pandemonia sitting beneath a bright white light. Iris looks away quickly, trying to avoid eye contact. She remembers fearfully the cup of tea that she drank unwillingly yesterday…

_Wait, was it yesterday?_

That’s when it hits her. The cup of tea. Curiosity wells up inside of her and bursts from her lips before she can stop it.

“Did you have tea with the Flash?”

“Again with the questions. My dear, I don’t think you know how this works. However, I will answer your question despite your lack of cooperation the other day.” Pandemonia smiles at her and sits in the chair across from her. Iris notices there is no table between them this time.

“And yes, I did. We had a wonderful conversation and he was quite the charmer.”

“So it was you!” Iris exclaims. Pandemonia cocks her head to the side at this.

“Me? What did I do?”

“Bar-the Flash, he’s been drinking tea. He hates tea.” Iris stumbles over Barry’s name. Her slip is from her exhaustion and she feels dread welling up inside her. Pandemonia stands up, stretching. She walks over to a shelf to their left and grabs a large spray bottle. When she turns back around, there is a new and mischievous light in her eyes.

“Well then. That’s...wonderful. I’m glad to hear it. Although I don’t think anyone can _hate_ tea. Am I right, my Flower Girl?” Pandemonia sits down again, placing the bottle on the floor behind one of her chair legs and facing Iris.

“Where’s Cynthia?” Iris is determined to change the discussion topic.

“Would you like to see her?” Pandemonia asks, her smile broadening as she crosses her long legs beneath a black and purple skirt.

“Yes.” Iris says simply.

“Well then. That settles things,” Pandemonia says with a smile. Iris blinks and all of a sudden, there was the smell of daffodils in the air.

Iris’s vision blurs as she tries to see what Pandemonia has done. However, her eyes have grown quickly heavy and her mind begins to grow fuzzy.

“What did you-” Iris coughs heavily before finishing, “do to me?”

There comes no spoken answer from Pandemonia, only the tinkling of her laughter. Iris drowns in the scent of daffodils as Pandemonia’s laugh echoes in her mind.

 

Iris blinks and she finds herself in a field of flowers.


	13. Reality of Nightmares

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry's life is full of living nightmares.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which I torture the cast. Sorry...not?

Barry wakes to the sound of Cisco’s voice at his shoulder.

“Barry. Barry! Wake up!” Cisco says loudly. Barry’s groggy mind is reeling. All he can remember from the vivid dream that is quickly escaping his mind is high laughter as Iris danced in front of him. Her face was painted white and her voice was not her own as she said, “Hello my little cherry.”

Barry sits up, shoving the dream out of his mind and rubbing his eyes viciously. He glances at the clock next to the bed and freezes in the act of standing up. The clock says 9:34 PM. He guesses he’s been asleep for at least eight hours and he’s suddenly annoyed that Cisco didn’t wake him earlier.

“Barry!” Cisco’s voice emanates from his bedside desk. Barry reaches over and picks up the phone. Barry doesn’t know how Cisco managed to start a video chat with him without him accepting. But, it’s Cisco after all; Barry isn’t really that surprised. As Barry groggily stretches, he remembers his friends loading him into the car and driving him home. He was dead on his feet while they led him upstairs. Joe tucked him into his bed like he was eleven again and they left him to sleep his exhaustion off. 

“Yes Cisco?” Barry finally answers Cisco, his mind slow to react. 

“We got a solid lead, Bare.” Cisco’s face is relieved. “Someone apparently saw Iris walking down Main Street.”

“Really? When?” Barry drops his phone on the bed and rushes to get dressed. He is sitting back down again, fully dressed in his suit, before Cisco finishes his answer.

“About five minutes ago according to the tip line. But we don’t know if it’s a trap or not.” Cisco is staring intently at him. “Barry, maybe you shouldn’t-”

Barry hangs up on Cisco, pockets the phone and is gone before two seconds have passed. He runs towards Main Street, searching desperately for Iris. He sees no sign of her for several minutes. 

When Barry finally spots Iris, she is not on the street. She is sitting in a booth inside Jitters, leaning against the window and staring up at one of the televisions. 

Barry is next to her in an instant, his entrance blowing napkins around the newly-redone room. The whole room stares at him as he puts a hand on Iris’s shoulder.

She turns away from the television above them, which is showing coverage of a house fire, to look at him. A smile breaks across her face as she leans towards him. He is so happy to see her, at first he doesn’t notice the blank state of her eyes. 

Iris leans in until her lips are inches from his ear. He wraps his arms around her, comforted by her warmth. That is, until she speaks.

“Pandemonia says ‘Hello,’ Barry...”

 

Barry is scared. He is more scared now than he was when Iris was first kidnapped. He is more scared than facing the Reverse Flash or dealing with any other Meta. He is more scared than he has been this whole last week. 

Never, in his last two years of fighting villain after villain, has he met anyone like Pandemonia. He’s not sure how much she is like her brother, but he does  _ not _ want to have to deal with Joker on a weekly basis. He’s very glad he does not live in Gotham. 

Pandemonia has caused so much trouble in his life, he doesn’t even know where her influence ends and his previous state of life starts. She has driven everything in his life upside down, from his job to his best friend.

Iris, though.  **_Iris._ ** Pandemonia has done  _ something  _ to her. 

Despair fills Barry’s chest as he watches Caitlin finish Iris’s physical examination in the neighboring room. He stares at her through the glass window and tries to avoid drowning in his despair. After several more moments, Caitlin walks out of the room, closing the door behind her and facing the three boys. 

“She is...not in good shape.” Caitlin says, her voice breaking. Cisco takes her hand and walks her over to a chair. 

“What’s wrong with her?” Barry asks, frustration evident in his voice.

“I don’t know exactly. Obviously, her mental state is not stable. Other than her apparent hallucinations and her babbling, she is in good physical health. Much better than I would have expected from someone who was held captive for a week by a maniac Meta. She also has similar characteristics of the other victims we recovered.”

“Similar characteristics? Like Terra Michaels?” Barry asks, images of the young woman writhing in her bed despite the heavy restraints flashing through his mind.

“Terra Michaels died yesterday, Barry.” Joe says, looking Barry in the eyes.

“What?” Barry exclaims, fear tightening its hold on his heart. 

“She died of internal bleeding though guys.” Cisco adds, handing Caitlin a tissue to blow her nose. “Her mental state had nothing to do with her death.”

“You don’t know that!” Barry says loudly.

“Yes, we do,” Caitlin adds. “Remember Cynthia?”

“Obviously I remember her, Cait. What about her?” Barry says, facing Caitlin, who turns on the computer in front of her and clicks on the screen a few times before answering.

“She didn’t have any internal bleeding. See?” The x-rays that Caitlin had taken with Cynthia pops onto one of the televisions. They all look at it. 

“Okay…” Barry says hesitantly. 

“If you remember correctly, Cynthia was jumpy and skittish; Iris is also showing these symptoms. Both girls seemed like they were drugged. However, I don’t think there is anything permanently wrong with Iris. Give her a few days and she should be better. I hope.”

“So you think Cynthia and Iris were given the same drugs? What did you find in her-”

Barry is cut off by Iris’s scream. 

All four of them run into her room, Barry obviously getting there first. 

“Iris! What’s wrong?” Barry asks Iris, who has awoken from the sleeping meds that Caitlin had given her. She is standing in the corner of the room, cringing against the wall.

“Where, where is she?” Iris is looking frantically around. 

“Who, Iris baby?” Joe asks, putting a hand on his daughter’s shoulder. Iris flinches away from the physical touch and cries out. Joe removes his hand, looking scared.

“Cynthia. There are flowers...flowers everywhere. Where is she?” Iris’s eyes are rolling and she is jerking around despite her friend’s efforts to keep her still.

“Iris. Iris!” Barry tries to get her attention, but she is too far gone. She begins to scream, her voice cracking with the high pitched sound.

“The flowers are dying!” Iris cries loudly and then her head lolls to the side. She faints, losing consciousness. She slides along the wall to the ground, where she collapses.

The four people standing around her look at each other in terror.

“What was that?” Barry says into the silence.

“I’m going to go look into Terra’s records,” Caitlin says, running out of the room. “I think she may have had similar symptoms.”

Barry watches as Cisco follows Caitlin. He looks at Joe and his adoptive father nods; they silently agree to move her. Barry and Joe gently lift Iris up and place her in the hospital bed. Then Joe leaves, rubbing his eyes. 

“I’m going to call the station and update Captain on her condition,” he calls to Barry softly as he walks away.

Barry looks at Iris for a moment before he pulls out his phone. He dials without taking his eyes off of her. 

“Yes?” A gruff voice answers from the other side of the phone.

“I need help.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aah, Pandemonia you sneaky little Meta, you.


	14. Worsening Conditions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, Iris is in a bad way.

Having Batman in Central City was both a help and a hindrance to Barry Allen. Batman’s calm exterior and long, laid-out plans helped Barry roundup several of his smaller villains over the next week or so. Every day, or rather every night, the Flash and Batman would fight crime in Central City, almost squashing all of Barry’s problems.

 _Almost that is._ Barry still had a giant problem that was both social and super...Pandemonia. She had mysteriously disappeared over the last week. The night that she kidnapped Iris was the last time Barry saw her for five, seven, and now ten days. Additionally, Iris’s condition had worsened. Despite all of Caitlin and Batman’s efforts, there was nothing they could do but sedate her so she couldn’t hurt herself or anyone else.

After wrapping up a particularly annoying Metahuman who had a tendency to blow up lightbulbs, (Yes, that and nothing else. He was kinda a boring Meta, at least by Cisco's opinion. Barry simply sighed and Caitlin laughed.) Bruce Wayne and Barry Allen spent an hour or so in Star Labs, checking up on Iris.

 

Barry stands, looking down at Iris’s unmoving frame on the bed. He picks up her cold, dark hand and feels her very warm forehead.

“Have you seen anyone with these conditions before?” Barry glances at Bruce, who is standing to the side, leaning against the wall. His question rings in the too-quiet room, that annoying question that he has asked hundreds of times over the last fortnight.

“No.” Bruce answers patiently, though he cannot stop a sigh that builds its way up his chest and bursts from his lips.

“Are you-”

Barry is interrupted by Caitlin, walking into the room with a clipboard in her hands and her doctor’s jacket hanging around her shoulders.

“Okay, here’s the blood test results you asked for Bruce.” Caitlin hands it to the unmasked Batman, who raises his eyebrows as he quickly reads over the pages. Caitlin doesn’t see this, however; she walks over to Iris and lays her hand on Iris’s head. She meets Barry’s overly worried gaze and sighs too.

“Physically, she’s fine, Barry.” She tries to soothe him, but he shakes his head.

“No chemicals, no weird materials, nothing!” Batman exclaims under his breath.

“What does that even mean?” Barry asks, his chemical and scientific background being swept out of his mind with worry.

“It means,” Bruce Wayne says, pushing away from the wall and coming to stand next to his friend, “that she is fine. Physically. But her mental state is a completely different situation.”

“How is that possible?” Barry asks, glaring at Bruce for a long moment, despair filling his eyes. Then he looks back down at Iris’s inert form.

“Well, Barry, I think we can officially say that Pandemonia is a Metahuman. I know we were assuming it earlier, but now, I can’t see any other way this could have happened. There’s not a spec on her. No blood had been drawn and no IV’s injected before we-”

“It could have been gas,” Barry interrupts, remembering his first experience with Pandemonia and her splashes of crazy.

“No, Barry.” Bruce says kindly, “Gas would not be this potent after so many days. Everything should be out of her system by now, especially with us specifically clearing out her blood.”

“Why is she like this then?” Barry gestures at Iris with a wave of his hand. He steps away from her side and goes to lean against the door-frame, turning his back on all three of them.

“Other than the drugs we have been giving her to keep her sleeping peacefully, there are no remnants of anything else. Therefore, we can conclude that she must be suffering the affects of one of your Metahumans.” Bruce says from behind Barry’s back.

Barry turns around. “Then tell me _this_ , Bruce. How can she be so elusive? I’ve fought many Metahumans, and we were able to track **them**! Why can’t we track her? Why can’t we find her?” Barry takes in a deep, shaky breath. “Do you think she left Central?”

“I don’t know, Barry. You are the one who she seems to have fixated on. From what you’ve told me, I don’t believe she would leave Central without at least ‘saying goodbye.’” Bruce stresses the last two words and Barry glances at him.

“What if this,” Barry waves at Iris, “was her goodbye?”

“No. It wasn’t.” Cisco appears at the open doorway, black licorice in hand. Barry inwardly thinks about how worried Cisco must be: he only ever eats black licorice when he is extremely stressed out.

“Why?” The three of his friends say in unison, staring at Cisco.

“I think I’ve located another one of her Ghouls.”

“Ghouls?” Batman asks with an arched eyebrow.

“Yes. You remember those two men who went into Jitters with the confetti bombs?” Cisco asks.

“Johnson Adams and Hunter Dallon, yeah. What about them?” Caitlin replies.

“Well, they weren’t exactly the droids we were looking for, but they have also been under Pandemonia’s influence. I’ve been doing some research into their backgrounds and neither one of them have any hint, not even a little _wink_ of insanity, in their families. They were in the best of health, very successful, happily married, etcetera.”

“And..?” Barry asks.

“And, the fact of the matter is that they wouldn’t have any motive to go into Jitters and just bomb the place! In fact, Johnson Adams and his wife are advocates for nonviolence and when I talked to her on the phone, Marie told me that they went to Jitters every morning for a coffee before work. He and Hunter Dallon have no antagonism against the place.” Cisco pauses to take a bite out of his licorice.

“Speed it up Cisco. Where are you going with this?” Bruce says with a hint of impatience.

“Okay, well, they are also both still in the Psych unit of the Central City General Hospital. The doctors at CCGH told me that they have had to tie the both of them down because they would just stand in the corners of their separate rooms and talk to each other through the walls. They would also talk to midair.”

“So, you’re basically saying that two men who have no reason to, are acting insane and Pandemonia did this to them?” Caitlin asks, sighing.

“Elementary, my dear Watson.” Cisco says, bowing ridiculously; Bruce rolls his eyes. Cisco continues, “As seemingly affected victims of hers that are still under her influence, I have seen fit to call them her Ghouls.”

“And you said you found another one?” Barry demands, walking towards Cisco.

“Yerp.” Cisco says, turning on his heel and walking away with a gesture for them to follow him. "Come here!"

Bruce and Barry exchange a look, and Barry sighs.“Better suit up then, I suppose,” he says. The two superheroes quickly change into their suits before joining Caitlin and Cisco in the Cortex. The three of them crowd in behind Cisco and look over his shoulder; he continues to type quickly for a few minutes.

“Seriously, Cisco-” Barry says impatiently. Barry says impatiently, shifting his weight from foot to foot. Barry has never been a very patient person, let alone now that he can do things faster than the speed of sound. Cisco cuts him off.

“Ta-dum! Meet Alex Trinity!” Cisco says, a picture of a dark-haired, sallow-skinned man in his late twenties popping onto the screen.

“Hello. Did someone say my name?”

The whole group whips around and sees the same man standing behind them, a bomb strapped obviously to his chest over his dark, dirty hoodie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Say hello to another Ghoul. Oh dear, what is with Pandemonia and her bombs, huh? What could she be planning now?   
> (If you have any predictions, please feel free to comment them!)


	15. Nicknames & Priorities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pandemonia has nicknames for everyone! Yay!

“Hello, Sweet Tooth, Doctress, Cherry,” Alex Trinity says, nodding his head to each of them in turn. “My Mistress sends her regards.” Then Alex’s eyes land on Batman and grow wide. He bounces up and down and walks over to Batman happily. Before the others can react, Alex wraps an arm around Batman and turns him to face the others. 

“Ooh! Look, look, look! It’s Bat Boy!” Alex trills, holding onto a very cautious and annoyed Batman, taking a few steps backwards to separate them from the group. Batman’s expression sours when he realizes what Pandemonia must call him, while Barry turns away slightly to hide a smile he can’t stop. 

“Uhm, hello.” Cisco says nervous and rolling “Sweet Tooth” over in his mind. Not exactly the nickname he would have came up with himself, but he -uh- can’t necessarily tell that to this Ghoul. At least it’s not “Bat Boy.”

“Mistress wanted me to deliver a message.” Alex continues, ignoring the others and focusing mainly on the Flash, aka “Cherry.” 

“Seriously Pandemonia and her nicknames.” Barry mutters quietly under his breath before clearing his throat and asking, eyes on the bomb on Alex’s chest, “What message?”

“It’s quite simple: Mistress Pandemonia says if you want to cure Flower Girl, she would like to meet you alone and in person.” Alex says, still holding tightly to Batman. “And she means, with  _ no _ chauffeurs. That includes you as well,  _ Batty _ .” Alex continues, glancing at Batman from the corner of his eye. “You and I get to sit here and be best of buds!” He finishes excitedly with a broad smile on his face.

After a second of thought, Alex adds, “Oh, and Mistress told me to make sure that you went ALONE. No funny business, otherwise Flower Girl and your other friends will enjoy some fireworks.” Alex smiles wider and takes a step towards the group, sending Caitlin and Cisco scooting backwards. 

Barry is unsure what to do. For a moment, he deliberates. From where he is standing, he can’t see the bomb’s trigger. Pandemonia is many things -crazy, psychotic, and weird- but she isn’t dumb. Barry knows she wouldn’t do the same thing twice; he’s pretty certain that there is no  _ confetti _ in this bomb. But Batman’s face is telling him “IT’S A TRAP!” more than if he would just say the words aloud.

Barry  _ knows  _ it’s a trap. Obviously it’s a trap! But this is Iris they’re talking about. He can’t just let her continue to deteriorate right in front of him. He has to do something.

Barry thinks all of this through, and more, in a very short amount of time. Within twenty seconds of quick thought, Barry has a shaky plan formulated in his head and is ignoring Batman’s furious gaze. He’s the Flash; he can do this.

“Where does she wanna meet?” He asks, trying to remain strong and push away the voice in his head that says he’s an idiot.  

“No!” Cisco and Caitlin say at the same time; Bruce slowly shakes his head ‘no.’ Barry blatantly ignores them.

“At the place you first encountered Cynthia,” Alex says, his grin turning manic and his voice sing-song. “She said you’ll find quite a party.”

Barry hesitates for a moment, looking around at his friends. He doesn’t want to leave them with a crazy bomber in their midst, but they’re smart. They can figure it out. But maybe he should try to help…

“Oh! I keep forgetting. And she says to be there by ten o’three or Iris will never be free.” Alex dissolves into high-pitched laughter at this. Barry glances at the digital clock on the table next to him. 

It reads  **10:02 PM** .

“NO!” Batman yells, finally speaking. Alex hushes him with a jerk on his arm. 

Within a moment, Barry is gone, leaving Batman, Caitlin, and Cisco to deal with the maniac with a bomb. He’s got other problems, like Pandemonia. 

Barry arrives at the dilapidated warehouse, which has not changed much. The only difference Barry can now see is that there are some lights on inside the run-down place. Barry rushes inside, expecting a trap. Maybe Pandemonia and an army of her Ghouls, maybe Chaos, ready to beat Barry to a pulp.

Inside, Barry finds...a woman with her back turned to him, slowly setting up strings of lights. She is wearing a long thick coat with a hood disguising the back of her head. 

“Hello?” Barry stops in place and calls to her. He would just run in front of her and confront her, but if Pandemonia really  _ is _ a Metahuman, -and they haven’t been able to figure out her powers yet- then attacking her head-on is not promising. 

But as the woman turns to face him, her hood falls off, revealing blonde hair and a pretty -unmasked- face.

“Cynthia!” Barry calls and takes a step toward her. Cynthia puts up a hand before he can run to her, and he notices with a jolt that there are chains around her wrists and a bomb strapped to her chest. He jerks his eyes back up to her face and her eyes give him chills. 

She is not looking at him; her eyes are staring blankly at the wall behind him. After a moment, however, she blinks slowly and she is able to focus on him. 

“Flash!” Cynthia’s voice is very scared and serious. She tries to move towards him, but the chains restrict her. She is now completely focused on Barry, and her eyes fill with tears. 

“Yes, Cynthia. I’m here to-” Barry begins.

But Cynthia cuts him off. “Flash! Iris! Where is she? I, I lost her. She, she went to the field of flowers and then she-” Just at that moment, before Cynthia can finish her sentence, Dystopia appears behind her. 

“That is quite enough from you, my dear.” Dystopia says to Cynthia, and Cynthia jumps. Dystopia lays a hand on Cyn’s arm and whispers something in her ear. Cynthia’s eyes go blank again and she doesn’t say another word. Barry watches in horror as Dystopia turns Cynthia away, unlocks her from her chains, and walks her to the far door.

Before they leave the room, Barry yells, “Hey!” 

Dystopia turns back for a moment and calls over her shoulder, “Mistress will be with you in a moment. She’s fashionably late.” Then she gives a small nod, and Barry feels two large sets of hands clamp on his arms. He jerks backwards, but the two large men behind him wrestle him into a chair. They aren’t the massive size of Chaos, but they very well could be related to him. 

Barry’s chest fills with annoyed terror as he looks at his captors. They chain him to the chair without making eye-contact. When Barry meets one of their eyes, he jumps. The man’s eyes are focused, and he does his job intently. But the rest of his face is blank: no smirk on his lips, no twitch of any emotion except concentration.

Barry is helpless, watching his captors tie him to the chair. He would simply escape, if not for three things that are in the forefront of his mind. One, Iris. He needs to somehow convince Pandemonia to help him cure her, because if he doesn’t, she will die. He knows she will die. Two, he wants answers. What are Pandemonia’s powers? How can he stop her? He intends to get this information directly from her. Third and finally, the bombs strapped to his captors’ chests. He is quickly growing tired of these stupid bombs; inwardly he wonders how many Pandemonia  _ has _ !

“Ah, hello my dear!” A lilting high pitched voice echoes to him across the lighted room. Barry’s head jerks up at the sound, his eyes landing on the villain in the doll-mask.

“Pandemonia.” He growls; his intense dislike of her radiating from his tone with that one word. 

“Oh, don’t be like that, my dear little cherry.” Pandemonia walks towards him, smiling broadly. “It’s all fun and games in the end,” she laughs.

“Until someone loses their soul,” Barry mutters, glancing sidelong at the Ghouls at his side. When Pandemonia entered the room, they stood at attention. They now stand, staring blankly at Pandemonia like she was their commander. 

“Oh, you don’t like my Toy Soldiers?” She asks, stopping in front of the Ghoul to Barry’s left. She pats the man on the cheek and he smiles at her. She glances at Barry to gauge his reaction. 

He doesn’t respond for a moment, and she takes a step until she is within arm’s reach of him. 

“Come now, let’s not be petty.” She says, crouching so she is at eye-level with him. Out of the corner of Barry’s eye, he sees a flick of shadows. He controls the impulse to turn to confirm his assumption:

Batman has arrived.  


	16. Bats, Traps, & Cures

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the super long wait! I've been insanely busy with school, home, and work. 
> 
> But I ended up skipping school yesterday and went to my brother's house. So, here's a chapter for you guys!

Batman watches from the bars in the top of the warehouse as his friend talks to the villain. Bruce’s first impression of this particular villainess is that she is dramatic. (No duh, Batman.) She is also well protected. Glancing around the length of the room, Batman notes the two “Toy Soldiers,” a woman in the far corner, and several traps around the room. He assumes these are filled with whatever version of Joker-gas Pandemonia uses. He also assumes they are traps for him and not his friend in the red suit.

As Pandemonia and the Flash talk quietly for a few moments, Batman thinks back over the last half-hour. After Barry had left -like an idiot running headlong into danger without a plan or backup- Bruce had been able to knock out Alex Trinity. He and Cisco then worked on trying to disarm the complex bomb. From its familiar setup, Batman understood that it was not Pandemonia making the bombs, but her henchman: Chaos. That did nothing to assuage Batman’s fiery nerves as he worked furiously to disarm the bomb before it blew up S.T.A.R. Labs, of course.

It took him and Cisco fifteen minutes, but finally the bomb was disarmed. As soon as the danger was passed, Batman rushed to the Flash’s aid. He arrived at the warehouse and went inside carefully. By the time he was situated, Pandemonia had made her dramatic entrance and was talking quietly with Barry.

The sound of his name brings him back to his surroundings. Batman glances down and listens more closely to the Flash and Pandemonia’s conversation.

“-Batman left you all alone.” Pandemonia’s voice was taunting. “Yes, I know you said as much but I simply refuse to believe it. In fact, I think he must be...here. Somewhere.” Batman watches as her head tilts up towards him.

“Hello Bat-boy.” A deep voice echoes loudly behind Batman and he hears a _crack_ as his suit body-armor takes a heavy impact. The sudden force of the blow sends him tumbling the long distance to the floor, where his vision goes red before blackness overwhelms him.

 

Watching Batman fall from the rafters with a heavy _crash_ sends fear jolting through the Flash. The sight of Chaos landing on his feet next to the unconscious Batman and dragging Bruce off to who-knows-where fills Barry with guilt.

“Where are you taking him?” Barry demands, calling after Chaos.

“Oh, he’s just the delivery man.” Pandemonia answers, and when Barry looks back at her, anger is flickering in her expression. “Batty needs to stay in his own city. My dear brother will make sure this little escapade will not happen again.”

Barry winces as he watches Chaos leave through a far door and slam it behind him, Batman’s unconscious form dragging helplessly behind him. Pandemonia puts a hands on Barry’s face and turns him until he is facing her. Her skin is ice-cold on his cheek as his heart beats rapidly with fear.

Barry can hear Cisco in his head, scolding him for his stupidity. His friend is going to give him _such_ a lecture. That is, if he gets away from Pandemonia.

“Now that the boy in the cape is out of the way, let’s discuss the reason I invited you here.” Pandemonia smiles widely, her bright white teeth flashing at him.

“What did you do to Iris?” Barry demands of her, jerking his head out of her hold.

“I just gave her what she wanted. And in return, she answered a few questions I had.” Pandemonia takes a step back and one of the Toy Soldiers brings her a chair. She sits in it and faces Barry, crossing her leg and playing with her hair. It seems that she is waiting for a response from Barry.

“What...did you ask her?” Barry questions hesitantly. What did Iris tell this maniac?

Pandemonia simply smiles, “Oh, it was just idle gossip. I don’t wanna betray the Girl-Code.”

“Okay…” Barry says, outwardly appearing confused. On the inside, though, he is thinking furiously. He needs to find some way to convince Pandemonia to reveal the information he wants. But how? He has never been much for these type of situations: a manipulative push and pull. He is much more of a straightforward hero. Yes, he occasionally dances around the point if, like with Iris, he is nervous or embarrassed. But that was with _her_ , and this is an entirely different circumstance.

Movement catches his eye and he returns his mind back to the situation at hand. He is just going to have to make it up as he goes along.

“So, my dear Cherry, let’s talk then.” Pandemonia sighs, leaning back in her chair and draping her long legs over the table.

“About what?” Barry asks, still unsure of where to go with the conversation.

“Well, let’s take care of the elephant in the room.” She suddenly brandishes a vial of lilac-colored liquid. It fits between her index and middle finger with how tiny it is. “I assume that you did not come here simply to deliver Bat-boy for my dear brother. Though I wish it wasn’t true, I’m sure you want nothing but the cure for Flower Girl.”

Barry hesitates a moment before opening his mouth to -disagree? Agree?- but is interrupted by Dystopia entering the room with a box in one hand.

“Ah! There you are, my darling.” Pandemonia waves at her and Dystopia walks over, places the box on the table, and exits without even meeting Barry’s obvious glare.

“Where is she?” Barry demands, distracted from his concern for Iris by his fear for Cynthia’s deteriorating condition. Dystopia doesn’t answer or even acknowledge his existence. The only answer he receives is the slamming of the door.

“Where’s who?” Barry whips his gaze back to Pandemonia, who has her head cocked to the side and is wearing a sly smile.

“Enough of your games, Pandemonia.” Barry growls, and leans forward to look at the box. At the exact moment he moves however, the Toy Soldiers on either side of him grip his arms tightly and jerk him back into his chair. With a huff of pain and annoyance, he rolls his eyes and sits still. Pandemonia’s smile grows and she winks at the Soldiers. Then she places the tiny vial on the table between them.

“Thank you boys, but I’m not sure that was strictly necessary.” She pushes the box towards Barry and nods at it. He meets her gaze and then moves to touch it again, slowly this time. The Toy Soldiers don’t even shift their weight from either foot. After the initial hesitation, Barry pulls the box towards him and opens it. He glances inside. The box is full of thirteen vials identical to the one on the table, all lined up in a tray, with one missing.

“What are they?” He pushes the box back at her, confused. She smiles and takes the box back.

“Come now, I would think you would put it all together,” Pandemonia says as she pulls out one of the vials. “These are for the Flower Girl.”

Barry doesn’t want to believe her; getting a cure couldn’t be _this_ easy. He simply shows up and she hands him the cure? Then, he remembers Batman. Okay, that wasn’t the _only_ thing he did. He also got his friend kidnapped and sent to face his greatest villain as a possible victim. With that thought, guilt stabs Barry’s stomach and he shakes his head slowly.

“My, my. Cherry, you must be more creative.” Pandemonia leans forward to stroke his cheek with her hand. Barry can’t help his reaction to the icy touch of her pale skin; he jerks back and nearly tips his chair over. One of the Soldiers catches him and sets him back upright. As he does so, Barry thinks he sees a flash of emotion in Pandemonia’s eyes.

Was that...is she pouting?

Then the emotion is gone and Barry is upright again.

“Fine. Creative guess: these aren’t a cure at all, but more poison. You’re trying to trick me.” Barry says, picking up one of the vials in front of him and examining it.

Pandemonia shakes her head at him and says sweetly, “My dear cherry, sometimes a gift is not a bomb but simply what it looks like! In this box, for example, is the correct antidote to cure Flower Girl’s _specific_ predicament.”

“What does that mean: _specific_?”

“It is what it is. A cure for her and her alone. I seriously wouldn’t suggest you give it to one of my _friends_ who are out and about. I’m afraid they would have a bad reaction to it.” She gently removes the vial from his hand and places both visible vials back into the box. Then she pushes the box towards him again.

“It can’t be that simple,” Barry mutters aloud. This time, it’s Pandemonia’s turn to roll her eyes.

“And why not?” She stands up and walks around the table until she is within arm’s reach.

“Because that is just...not how it works! What do you want for this?” Barry exclaims. “You must have some sort of elaborate plan and you think you can trip me up.”

Pandemonia laughs, her voice a warm chuckle instead of her usual high-pitched laugh. She seems sincerely entertained by Barry’s point of view on the “cure” she is offering.

“Flash, at this exact moment, I have no particular ‘plan’ for this cure other than for your friend. You can refuse this, of course, but I would really rather you didn’t. I don’t want to have to go to her funeral any time in the near future.” Pandemonia pauses to put the box on the floor. Then she lays down on the table in front of him. He leans back away from her and she continues, “We had a nice chat and I think I’ve grown to like her. Plus, I look horrid in white.”

“White? Don’t you wear black to a funeral?”

“I don’t. Do you?” Pandemonia, now laying on her side, facing him says. Then her eyes lose focus for a moment as she stares off into the distance.

“No, just like everyone else on Earth, i-”

Barry is interrupted by Dystopia, -for the hundredth time- who rushes into the room and almost _runs_ to stop at the table. Pandemonia’s eyes refocus and she sits up.

“What’s wrong, dear?” She says, running her hand through her hair.

“Mistress, I’m afraid that Batman has awoken and is giving my husband a bit of trouble. Please, may we have the assistance of the Soldiers?” Dystopia hurries over the words and bows as soon as she is finished.

Pandemonia glances at the men standing next to Barry’s chair. “Go help the General.” In an instant, the men salute her and follow Dystopia out of the room.

Barry sits there as relief rushes over him. Batman is awake and fighting Chaos, which also gives Barry a chance to escape. After all, now he has the cure for Iris, or whatever it is inside the box on the ground next to his right foot. He got what most of what he came for, at least. Better than nothing.

“Now, Flash.” Pandemonia turns to him as if she could tell where his thoughts had immediately turned at the exit of his prison guards. “There **was** actually something I forgot to mention. This cure that I have made, it isn’t technically permanent.” Pandemonia shrugs and the thought of escaping leaves Barry’s mind in an instant.

“What do you mean?” Barry says through his teeth.

“Well, you can never know exactly how every person will react to poison. Especially my poisons. I’ve had some people enjoy it. And to make a true diagnosis, I’d have to examine her myself. While I’m not opposed to that-”

“You’re never getting anywhere near her again!” Barry interrupts, white-hot anger flaring through him as he breaks the chains that attach him to the chair. With a burst of Speed, he has Pandemonia pinned against the closest wall, his arm against her throat. “You. will. Not. Touch. Her.” He practically spits, the anger turning his vision red around the edges.

Other than a surprised huff of breath. Pandemonia meets his anger with cool calmness. Her voice is steady without the slightest hint of fear when she speaks.

“Now, Cherry,” she begins with a bit of a condescending tone. Barry tightens his grip on her throat, not realizing that he was also pressing his body closer to hers.

“That stings a bit.” She says, annoyance beginning to creep into her voice now.

“Good. It will help you understand. Stay away from Iris.” Barry is shaking with anger. He increases the pressure on her throat and lifts his other hand towards her face, now determined to rip the mask off.

“I like it rough, Cherry, but not _this_ rough.” Pandemonia says, and leans forward to press her lips roughly to his. He is stunned for a long moment as she traces his lips with her tongue before biting him.

He jerks back, confused at this sudden change of situation. As soon as they separate, the world swirls for a moment in Barry’s sight. He stumbles backwards and nearly trips, but falls into the table instead. He grabs the table to steady himself and after a moment, his sight clears. He glances at Pandemonia, who is leaning against the wall. Her nearly-constant smirk has returned and her neck is slightly red.

He glances away, looking around for the box. When he spots it, he Runs to it and is out the door. As he Speeds away, he can hear Pandemonia’s last mocking sentence echoing in his ears:

“She needs one twice a day!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Maniacal laughter*
> 
> Pandemonia is a psychopath. Was anyone really that surprised about the kiss? 
> 
> Hoping to post another chapter soon soon soon! 
> 
> Love, Bumble!


	17. Flashes of Pandora

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pandemonia has a nice chat with a visitor.

Pandemonia dusts herself off and laughs as she steps away from the wall. Then she sighs and runs her fingers through her magenta hair.

“I wish our first kiss could have been a bit more romantic,” she says to herself. She walks over and sits down at the table. She removes her mask and places it down, rubbing her throat with one hand.

“Romantic? Please, dear sister. No one needs romance from that red hippie.”

Pandemonia turns towards the door and a smile spreads across her face as she sees her new visitor. “He’s not a hippie.”

The Joker’s smile is as big as ever as he walks over to her. “I disapprove nonetheless. I’d really prefer if you went after Batsy. I always wanted him as a brother.”

Pandemonia makes a face, “Please. No one as serious as that man is getting anywhere near me. I thought I was supposed to deliver said Bat to you in Gotham, anyway.”

“You know me, I prefer presents in person.” He smirks and nods his head towards the doorway. Chaos stands there, a recently knocked-out Batman at his feet. Pandemonia makes a face again.

“Why don’t you simply remove his mask, brother?”

“And ruin the fun? No thanks!” Joker laughs and Pandemonia joins in. “You haven’t removed the Flash’s mask so far either. Can’t you see all the fun you can still have?”

Pandemonia doesn’t answer, but gestures to Chaos to take the Bat-boy away. Chaos grabs his cape and drags Batman behind him as he walks away. The Joker sits down across from Pandemonia and smiles widely at her, expectant.

“Was there something specific you needed, brother mine?” Pandemonia asks with a sigh, leaning back in her chair.

“I’m just here to check on you, Pandora,” Joker says with a hint of seriousness in his tone. “You left Gotham unexpectantly and I haven’t heard much from you.” Pandemonia’s lips twitch at the sound of her true name and she raises her eyebrows at him.

“I’m enjoying myself here; it’s so fun to watch people fight over everything and run themselves ragged worrying. My usual chaos, you know.” She smirks and the Joker smiles in return.

“Now that I have my present, did you need anything before I leave?” Joker asks, standing up and walking over to her.

“No, no. I would prefer that Chaos stays here, though. Do you really need him to transport Bat-boy?”

“Bat-boy?” Joker repeats, crinkling an eyebrow and smirking.

“Yes, that or Boy-in-the-cape.” Pandemonia smirks and then says loudly, “Dystopia dear, bring me some tea please.”

Dystopia pops her head into the room for a moment and nods, “Yes Mistress, right away.”

“Personally, I think ‘Batsy’ fits him more, but then again I’ve known him longer. I can’t expect everyone to get the _joke_. Have fun torturing the red hippie.” He walks towards the door, and pauses when he reaches it. Then he turns back, “I won’t need Chaos if you send those...whatever they were. Your little puppet men.”

“That’s fine,” Pandemonia sighs. “Goodbye Alastor.”

Joker laughs deeply at the sound of _his_ name, knowing her using it was payback for earlier. He waves over his shoulder and walks out of the room.

Pandemonia closes her eyes and sighs loudly. As she waits for Dystopia’s return, her mind begins to wander...

 _A familiar view. A horribly sickly familiar view. One she hated with a vengeance. It greeted her as she entered her mom’s hospital room. It was another bad day; her mom was paler than normal, whatever treatment the doctors were trying today was obviously not working. Pain gripped Pandora’s heart as she remembered the doctors shooting down her most recent idea. Why wouldn’t they just_ listen _to her?_

_“Pandi.” Her mom’s rough whisper sent her stepping quickly into the room._

_“Mom.” She said, quickly walking over to the bedside and taking her mom’s outstretched hand. Her skin is ice cold and Pandora rubs it, hoping to increase the temperature. Her mom’s eyes struggle to find her face and Pandora leans closer. Her mom’s eyes fill with tears as her rough voice_

_“I have to tell you something….”_

 

“Mistress?”

Dystopia’s voice jerks Pandemonia out of her flashback.

“Thank you my dear, that will be all for now.” Pandemonia says dismissively with a nod. Dystopia bows and then walks away. Pandemonia picks up her mug and sips her tea. She nibbles on a biscuit for a moment.

“Mistress, you should let me look at that.” Chaos voice sounds behind Pandemonia. She turns towards him and smiles.

“Look at what?” Pandemonia motions for him to sit next to her. Chaos pulls his chair close to hers and sits. Then he places a gentle hand on her neck. He presses softly on it.

“Any pain?” He asks, continuing to examine it.

“No.” Pandemonia lies, ignoring the needles of pain that follow his very light touch.

“I swear next time I am going to rip his arms off.” Chaos growls under his breath as he finishes his examination and leans back. He folds his arms over his chest and frowns at her.

“But then, how will he hold me?” Pandemonia says in a fakely-sweet voice.

“We can always sew his arms back on. Or give him new ones. Just as long as he doesn’t bruise you again.” Chaos says, standing. “I’m getting ice for that. And a few pain pills.” He pats her on the head before he heads for the door.

“Actually,” Pandemonia says before he reaches the doorway. He turns to see her walking towards him with the tray, her mask hanging from her belt loop.

“Yes?” He takes it from her before she can protest. She unties the mask and puts it on the tray. Chaos glances at it.

“I was planning to go see my old apartment. A little road trip down memory lane.” She walks past him and he follows her.

“That’s not the best idea…” He starts, hesitantly; she glares at him. “At least let me escort you.” He glances at the mask on the tray again. “It’s not well for you to be out alone.”

“Fine,” she sighs. “But while we are away, I need Dystopia to prepare some of our friends for the next phase of the plan.”

“Yes, Mistress. Why don’t you meet me at the door and I’ll go tell her?”

“Yes, yes. Whatever.” Pandemonia waves her hand at him and turns to walk the other way. He pauses, glancing at her, before continuing on his way.

Pandemonia’s legs walk without her direction as her mind is filled with questions.

 _Why do I want to go back there?_ She asks herself, confused. She hadn’t visited that place since...Victor’s death.

_Victor...Who is Victor?_

Her mind races as she grasps at gaps in her memory. Now she definitely needs to visit her old apartment.

She blinks and finds herself at the front door of the warehouse. She refuses to wait for Chaos. He shouldn’t know where she is going. And she doesn’t need a bodyguard.

She pushes the door further open and steps out into the chilly evening. As she brushes her hair behind her ear, she heads towards the apartment she hasn’t seen for over a year.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Evil laughter*  
> I have soo much planned for the next little bit. I'm so excited!
> 
> Also, (in total between this website and Wattpad) WE ARE ALMOST AT A THOUSAND READS. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU TO EVERYONE!!!


	18. Broken-Down Memory Lane

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Long chapter full of Pandemonia. Hope you like it!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter should have more of Team Flash. Sorry if it's getting a bit annoying with JUST Pandemonia. Then again, it IS all about her. ;)

It takes her longer than she expected to get to her old place. It is also not what she was expecting. She was expecting some run-down apartment complex, but when her feet finally stopped moving, she was in a brightly lit street filled with beautiful multicolored houses like the one in front of her.

It was like the cheery “Everyone has a happy ending” neighborhoods that you would see in a movie. Pandemonia scoffs aloud at the sight of the deep ocean-blue house in front of her.

“This must be the wrong place,” she mutters under her breath. She turns to walk away, but something inside her tugs her forward instead. She walks up the cobbled pathway to the front of the house, up the oak-wood stairs and to the front door. Without realizing what she is doing, she reaches to her right and picks up a ceramic frog. She turns it over and out falls a small key. With confusion racing through her, she puts the frog down and unlocks the door.

Pandemonia enters the house suspiciously. Something is wrong. Something is different, and she can’t figure out what. A layer of dust covers everything as she slowly walks through the house. She stops at a shelf with framed pictures sitting on it. In one of them, a woman and a man lay on a blanket in a park, laughing. Next to it is another picture of the same woman, smiling brightly, her hazel-green eyes sparkling in bright sunshine and her red-brown hair curled around her face.

Something in Pandemonia breaks. She stumbles back from the pictures and runs into a wall behind her. She slides down the wall until she is sitting on the dusty floor. She clutches her head in her hands as images, sounds, and smells attack her.

 

_“Oh come on! Open it already!” He sits in front of her, anxiously waiting for her to tear into her birthday present. She smiles widely at him, teasingly._

_“Maybe I don’t wanna…”_

_His dramatic groan makes her smirk._

_“Fine, fine. I’ll just go give it to the dog. Charlie will appreciate it more than you obviously!” He threatens playfully, throwing his arms into the air._

_“I’ll open it, I’ll open it.” She laughs and starts pulling at the bright wrapping paper. Within moments, the present is unwrapped._

_“A box?” She says, raising her eyebrows._

_“A box within a box, my dear! Keep going.” He stands up to grab something and she glares at his back._

_“It better_ not _be a box you jerk,” she mutters and opens the box. Inside, there are packing peanuts. She digs through them, throwing handfuls of them at him as he enters a room. She finally reaches the bottom of the box to find a note that reads:_ **_“Look up.”_ **

_She does. He is kneeling in front of her with a box and she starts crying._

_“Pandora Cynthia Videl, will you-”_

 

“NO!” Pandemonia jerks out of the memory and back to the present. She shakes her head violently and stands shakily.

She takes a few steps toward the door, desperate to leave this strange place. Before she gets five steps, another flashback takes over her.

 

_“I don’t know about this,” she says, sighing anxiously. “Isn’t this bad timing?”_

_“It’ll be great! Come on.” Victor laughs at her expression and grabs her hand. He leads her down the now-familiar hospital hallway to her mom’s room. When they enter, her mom is sitting up in bed, smiling widely._

_“Mom!” Pandora lets go of Victor’s hand and sits in the chair next to her mom’s bed._

_“Hey Pandi.” Her mom winks at her and takes her hand. Then she turns her attention to the tan, blond-haired doctor standing in the doorway. “Victor, please, come in.”_

_“How are you, Mrs. Videl?” He says, stepping inside and picking up her chart._

_“Come now, Victor. You know it’s Hannah. And  I’m good. Would be better if they let you look after me but they keep telling me it’d be a ‘conflict of interest.’ Not that I’d care.” She laughs and turns her attention to Pandora. She glances at Victor and then back at her daughter. She raises her eyebrows expectantly._

_“We have..uhm..something to tell you, Mom.” Pandora stutters out._

_“Oh you do now?” Her mom says innocently. A bit_ too _innocently._

_“We’re...we’re….” Pandora stops, unable to continue. Victor sighs and rolls his eyes._

_“We’re engaged, Mrs. Videl.”_

_“Well, imagine that!” Hannah Videl’s smile grows wider and her sarcastic surprise makes the other two blush. “I thought it would never happen!”_

_Pandora’s face turns the color of a tomato. “Moooommmm.” She says under her breath._

_“Now, you really_ will _have to call me Hannah,” Pandora’s mother turns to face her fiance. “Or Mom. Either which.”_

_“Yes, Mom.” He says with a smile, walking over to stand behind Pandora. He kisses her cheek and they all laugh._

 

Tears roll down Pandemonia’s cheeks though she doesn’t know why. She sits with her head in her hands for a moment more before another scene starts playing in her head.

 

_“Excuse me.” Pandora enters the rundown bar with some hesitation. When she reaches the cedar bar in the left side of the room, she cautiously takes a seat and looks around the almost-empty room._

_“What can I getcha, honey?” The bartender, a man in his late thirties with a teardrop tattoo under his left eye, says to her as she sits._

_“Nothing, thank you. I’m...I don’t drink.”_

_The man raises his eyebrows. “You don’t huh? You certainly look like you could use one though. Lady, I’ve seen people come into this bar with expressions just like yours. Must be having a bad day. Elsewise, why would you be in a bar when you don’t drink?”_

_“I’m looking for someone.” Pandora says, hesitating again._

_“Looking for someone? There’s not too many people around these parts. Gotham’s not the type of city that attracts tourists.” He leers at her; he obviously thinks she is a tourist. “Who ya looking for?”_

_She hesitates again, and then decides it can’t hurt. “Someone by the name of...Alastor Videl.”_

_The bartender is quiet, thinking for a moment. He opens his mouth but before he says anything, laughter echoes through the bar. High, maniacal laughter._

_The bartender’s head jerks towards a far corner of the room, then he glances back to Pandora._

_“Something funny, boss?”_

_“Oh, I just haven’t heard that name in a long while.”_

The Joker _comes out of the dark corner and Pandora freezes. She has heard of him of course; there isn’t a serial killer running around free without the news reporting it. She knew he lived in Gotham, but she hadn’t expected to run into him on her first day._

_To run or not to run. She debates this as the Joker walks closer and closer. Like a deer in headlights, she’s completely and utterly frozen. He sits down next to her and looks at her, cocking his head to the side._

_“Take a walk, Jones.” The Joker says to the bartender without looking away from Pandora. She tries to hide her terror as the man laughs and walks away._

_Maybe he’s just a look-a-like. Maybe he’s just a pretender. Maybe my luck isn’t_ the worst luck ever _and I’m just dreaming. Maybe this isn’t happening._

_Pandora’s attempt to convince herself that this wasn’t happening fails, epically._

_“Hello there.” The Joker says, raising an eyebrow._

_“Hello.” Pandora says, shoving her hands into her hoodie pocket to hide their shaking._

_“So, how did you come to hear of that particular name? Who are you? A cop? A reporter? Just curious?” The Joker frowns at her, obviously interested._

_Pandora doesn’t know what to say. The truth? Where to start?_

_As if he heard her thoughts, the Joker says, “Start at the beginning, and then I’ll decide what to do with you. Oh, and be honest. Liars are boring.”_

 

Without giving her a chance to take a breath, another memory overwhelms Pandemonia.

 

_Hannah Videl has tears in her eyes as she stutters over her words._

_“I-I have to...tell you something my dear.”_

_“What is it, Mom?” Pandora asks, squeezing her hand._

_“You, you…”_

_“Just say it, Mom. Whatever it is, it’s okay.” Pandora promises, scared by the fear in her mom’s expression. Her mom turns away from her and faces the window, pulling her hands up to her chest._

_“You have a brother.”_

_Pandora is stunned and can’t think of anything to say other than, “What?”_

_“You have an older brother. His name is Alastor Videl. I was married to his father, but he was abusive and when I found out I was pregnant again...I ran away. I, I left him. I left both of them.”_

_Pandora sits in silence as her world shifts and shakes. Her mom turns to see her expression, but Pandora’s face is stone-blank. All of the emotions whirling around inside her refuse to escape._

_“Where? Where does he live, Mom? How old is he?”_

_“He lives in Gotham. He’s somewhere in his late twenties now; I don’t remember much.”_

_“You ‘don’t remember much,’ Mom?” Pandora stands, suddenly furious. “How could you do this? To him? To me!”_

_She stomps out of the room as her mom calls her name._

 

Thunder rolls outside the house, shaking it. Pandemonia desperately tries to stand and walk towards the door before another memory engulfs her. However, the door just seems to get further and further away….

 

_“You need to go see her.” Pandora and Victor are standing in their kitchen. Pandora is moving around, making dinner while Victor watches her, frowning. He is in his lab coat, blond-brown hair ruffled and there are shadows under his eyes._

_“No.” Pandora is tired of this subject. She wishes her fiance would just drop it!_

_“Come on, you’re being ridiculous.”_

_“I’m not. Do you want beef or chicken?” She pulls both meats out of their fridge and places them on the counter next to him._

_“Chicken. You’re trying to change the subject.” His hazel-green eyes flash with a tinge of annoyance._

_“No I’m not. I’m trying to make dinner. Put the other one back in the freezer.” She grabs the chicken and cuts it up into small pieces. He watches her work for a moment before he sighs, obviously defeated._

_“We’re going to talk about this.” Victor tries one more time._

_“Not. Today.” She says dismissively._

_“Fine. I’ll be in the living room.” He leaves and she can hear him in the other room._

_When she enters the living room several minutes later, she sees him. He’s slouched down on the couch, half-asleep. She smiles despite her frustration with him and walks over. She leans down to kiss him, but as soon as her lips touch his, his eyes pop open. Pandora is dragged down into an embrace and they both laugh._

_When Victor lets her go, she stands up and leads him to the table. They sit and begin to eat._

_“I have something I wanted to tell you.” She smiles at him._

_“Mhmm?” He asks, his mouth full of food._

_“I decided to legally change my name when we get married.” Pandora says. Victor swallows his mouthful and raises an eyebrow._

_“Wouldn’t you normally do that? Isn’t that what people do when they get married?”_

_“Yes, silly. But I don’t think I want to be ‘Pandora’ anymore. I have never really liked it. I think I’m going to change it to my middle name. Add your last name and ta-dum! New name.”_

_“This has something to do with your mom doesn’t it?”_

_“No. Just think about it though, doesn’t it have a nice ring to it?”_

_Victor smirks and thinks about it for a moment._

_“Mhmm…’Cynthia Jackson’...yes I suppose it does.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *DROPS THE MIC AND WALKS AWAY*
> 
> *DUM DUM DUUUUUMMMMMM*
> 
> (AKA DRAMATIC MUSIC.)
> 
> PLEASE POST REACTIONS IN THE COMMENT SECTION THANKS.


	19. Chaos in S.T.A.R. Labs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the long wait guys! School caught up with me.

Pandemonia awakens to the sound of pouring rain against windows and thunder. She opens her eyes to darkness and discovers her face is against a wooden floor. She sits up slowly, her head pounding. She uses the wall next to her for leverage as she stands. 

As her head begins to ache even more intensely and her vision doubles, then blurs for a moment, Pandemonia sways. She stumbles to the side and then sits down on a couch to her right. When her vision clears, her mind does also. 

“What is happening?” She wonders aloud, gripping her head in her hands.

“Pardon me, Mistress.” A soft voice says to her left, making her jump slightly. She looks up to see Dystopia standing next to her, her face maskless and concerned,

“Oh, Dystopia. Hello.” 

“Hello Mistress.” Dystopia pauses before she continues, “I believe you have a concussion, Mistress. You seem to be not doing so well, indeed. I am quite surprised you made it all the way here on your own. My husband is quite, uhm, angry. Not with you, of course. With that boy you’re so obsessed with…”

“Please tell me he didn’t rip his arms off.” Pandemonia says with a groan as she tries to stand again. Her legs give out underneath her and Dystopia rushes to her side. Dystopia carefully helps her to sit again.

“No, no. I convinced him to wait until I looked for you before he went to confront him.”

“How long…?” Pandemonia asks. 

“Have you been here?” Dystopia finishes her question. “About eight hours, I believe.” 

“Oh.” Pandemonia is confused again. To her, it felt like days...maybe weeks.

“Mistress. I am going to call Chaos. You please, just sit here. I’m sure he’ll be here soon.”

“Okay…” Pandemonia says with a sigh, leaning back and resting her aching head on the couch. 

 

“Where. Is. She?!” Chaos has the Flash pinned against a wall in S.T.A.R. Labs, one hand on Barry’s throat and one hand on the wall. With every word, he smashes his large hand into the wall next to Barry’s face. Barry’s now-purple face.

“I don’t know, I swear!” Barry gasps out as the sound of a ringing phone echoes through the Cortex. 

Chaos rips the flip-phone out of his jacket pocket and opens it. 

“WHAT?” He growls loudly into it. A voice on the other end, chiding and female answers. Relief spreads over Chaos’s expression for a moment before it hardens again. 

“Fine. I’ll be there in a minute.” He says, letting go of the now-blue Flash. Flash falls to the floor, gasping heavily for oxygen. 

“You’re lucky, you worthless worm.” Chaos says viciously, swiftly heading towards the exit. 

The residents of S.T.A.R. Labs are stunned for a moment after Chaos’s exit, but they all rush to Barry.

“Barry!” “Barry, are you alright?” “Wake up!”

Caitlin pulls his mask off and then slaps Barry, who is unconscious now. Barry wakes up with another gasp.

“What?” Barry sits up. “Whoa.” He tries to stand and Cisco, Caitlin and Iris help him. 

“Exactly my question, bro. What happened?” Cisco says, looking around at the disaster that is the Cortex. “Is that guy the Hulk or something?”

Caitlin shakes her head, “No idea. But help me clean up this place and then we can decide.”

Barry sits and watches as his friends clean up after the tornado that was Chaos. His mind is reeling as he reviews what happened. He is certainly glad he’s not dead but...at the same time…

“Guys what do you think just happened?” He asks his friends as they finish cleaning and sit down. His gaze follows Iris for a moment, concern for her seeping in and fogging his confusion. But then she meets his eyes and smiles, and it’s still Iris. But, in the back of his mind, Pandemonia’s words echo:  _ “You know, she’ll never be the same.” _

“I don’t know, Barry. What do  _ you _ think happened here?” Cisco’s aggravated and sarcastic answer jolts Barry back to his surroundings. “I think that a crazy-huge guy that may or may not be a metahuman invaded our place and trashed it before almost killing you.”

“Yes, but why?” Caitlin asks, just as confused as everyone else. “I get that he’s one of Pandemonia’s henchmen, but he seemed sincerely upset. He was looking for...someone. Who?”

The group turns to look at Barry as if he has the answer. In response, he groans. 

“How am I supposed to know!?” He exclaims. “It’s not like I can just get into someone’s head to figure out what they’re thinking!”

“Fine. You’re not Grodd. We are aware of that.” Cisco snarks back, sparking a semi-playful argument between the two boys.

Caitlin rolls her eyes and glances at Iris to view her reaction. She is stunned to see that Iris is looking at her hands, fear evident on her face.

“Iris?” Caitlin asks. The boys stop arguing and glance at Iris as well. 

“I...I think I know who he was looking for.” Iris’s voice is quiet, barely a whisper.

“What do you mean? Who?” Barry walks over to her and places a hand on her shoulder.

“I think he was looking for  _ her _ ...Pandemonia.” She glances up to meet Barry’s eyes. 

“Why would he be looking for her? It’s not like they could lose their boss...right?” Cisco asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Have you ever seen Pandemonia actually get into a fight, Barry?” 

“Well, no. I mean, it was pretty easy to pin her, I guess. But I figured that was just Speed. Why? Is there more to it than that?” 

“Yes...I think so.” 

“What makes you think that?” Caitlin asks, pulling her chair over to sit next to Iris, who is shaking slightly now.

“I can’t really...remember everything from the time I was there. But there is something I  _ do _ remember clearly. Chaos and Dystopia did a  _ lot  _ of things for her…”

“And? She’s their boss. They’re basically her servants,” Cisco rolls his eyes.

“Would a servant walk you out of a room because you can barely stand? There was this moment...it was when she was leaving. She stumbled...and Chaos had to catch her. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close to him. Then they walked out together, and it was obvious that she was using him as a crutch.”

“When did this happen?” Barry asks, moving so he can see Iris’s face.

“During my ‘questioning.’ When she left the room, I remember Chaos going with her and as they were walking down the hallway, I heard Dystopia say something...strange. Something about Pandemonia needing to eat something.”

“Is she hypoglycemic?” Caitlin asks, her forehead creasing as she considered this option.

“No. It was something else. I have a cousin that’s hypoglycemic. This was...different. It was like she had no strength. No physical strength anyway. I tried to get up and away from her at one point and I pushed past her. She didn’t even stop me; she fell against the wall and Chaos threw me back to my chair before helping her sit back down.”

“Weird.” Barry says, thinking it over.

“It wasn’t even the weirdest thing. Chaos and Dystopia….they were very strange.”

“Strange? How?” Cisco asks. Iris shakes her head, pausing for a moment. Her shaking hadn’t stopped and as she sat there, it grew worse.

“I...I don’t wanna think about it anymore.” Goosebumps raise on her arms as she wraps them around herself.

“You’re right. We’re sorry.” Caitlin says, looking at the other two. “Let’s get you laid down, okay? You’ve only been up and about for a couple hours.”

Caitlin leads Iris away from the others, into another room to lay down. Barry and Cisco sit at the computers to talk over what Iris told them. Barry tries to concentrate on Cisco and what he’s saying, but his mind begins to wander.  One question keeps repeating in his mind: 

**Where is Pandemonia?**


	20. Running from House Arrest

“She has a concussion? How did that happen?” 

The quiet, angry voice of Chaos questioning his wife brings Pandemonia around. She groans and opens her eyes to see that she is laying on a dark grey couch and the other two were standing a little ways away, talking in quiet voices. However, in the small space, the sound traveled easily.

“Chaos?” Pandemonia moans as she tries to sit up. She sways and Chaos catches and steadies her before she falls off the couch. 

“Mistress. You should have waited.” His voice is a mix of anger and frustration.

“I didn’t want to. I don’t need backup all the time.”

“You do when you have a concussion. Where did you get it?” Chaos pulls her up into his arms and heads towards the door. She barely complains except of the biting wind when they reach outside. 

“The Flash...I think?” Pandemonia is only answered by a resounding snarl. She decides to be quiet until they reach their headquarters. Inwardly, she’s reassessing what happened only...nine? Ten? Hours ago. The Flash using his Speed to slam her against a wall. He had knocked all the breath of out her lungs and she now distinctly remembers her head’s collision with the wall. It had ached but she had thought it would go away. 

“Obviously not.” She mutters under her breath.

They reach their headquarters, an actual warehouse that was up and running. It was stacked full of boxes, waiting to be shipped around the world. The owner of the franchise was a...friend of her brother’s. This allows them to enjoy the warmth and space in peace. 

A bowl of cereal sits in front of Pandemonia when she becomes aware of her surroundings again. She grabs the spoon and begins to eat, not even tasting the food. Dystopia walks into the room just as Pandemonia finishes. 

“Dystopia. I’ve had enough of this. Why were we at that house? Whose house is it?” Pandemonia’s frustration takes hold again as she tries to review the recent past but the concussion makes her head throb and there are holes in her memory. Again. 

“Mistress…” Dystopia starts hesitantly. “Well, that house belongs to Cynthia Jackson. She’s one of our...Friends. Remember?” 

“No. Yes...I don’t know. Where is she? I want to talk to her. Now.” Pandemonia, beginning to feel like herself again, glares at Dystopia. The other woman looks down hesitantly for a moment. 

“Dystopia.” Pandemonia’s tone is warning. “Bring her to me. Immediately.” 

“She can’t,” Chaos enters the room. “She is out. We’re using her to spy on the Flash.” 

“I didn’t order that. You…” 

“Mistress, you did.” Chaos cuts her off. “This is part of the next phase of the plan, of course.” 

Pandemonia wracks her brain for a minute, trying to remember the exact words she used before. Yes, she had ordered the beginning of the next phase, but she can’t remember saying anything about…

A sharp, distinct pain in her head stops Pandemonia on that thought. She rolls her eyes and sighs. 

“Fine. But I want to talk to her when she gets back. For now, how are our other Friends doing? What are they up to?” She picks her nails, missing the look exchanged between Dystopia and Chaos. 

“Everything is in place. For now though, I think it’s probably best if you stay here for now.” Dystopia says and Pandemonia shoots her a deathly glare. “Just so that we can have everything ready for you.”

“And to make sure your concussion isn’t serious. You wouldn’t want your...Cherry to see a side that’s not your best, would you?” Chaos adds.

“Fine, fine. You win. I’ll wait. Bring me something for my head first though. It hurts and it’s very obnoxious.” Pandemonia sighs and leans back in her chair. 

Chaos and Dystopia bow slightly to her and then leave the room. She stands and walks over to one of the couches they had brought in by her design. When she sits, her head throbs sharply and images…

 

_ “Pandora!” Hannah Videl’s voice is cracked and broken, but relief is all over her expression as her daughter walks slowly into the room.  _

_ “Hi Mom.” Pandora tries and fails not to smile at her. Looking at the woman in the hospital bed, all the previous worry she’s had for her mom rushes back in. “How are you?”  _

_ “I’m...alright. Better now that you’re here.” Her mom’s smile widens and Pandora walks over to the bed.  _

_ “Come on, tell me the truth. What have the doctors been saying? No one will tell Victor anything and he says you haven’t wanted to talk about it with him either.”  _

_ Her mom’s mouth twists to the side, chagrin evident on her face. _

_ “They say...well they’ve been saying what they have been saying this whole time, Pandi: I’m sick. Some rare genetic disease that’s only been recorded five or six times ever. They don’t even have a name for it yet. They don’t know how to treat it and they can only guesstimate the time I have left. They say it’s similar to other chronic diseases and that it is almost a mix of a couple of the others. But mainly they just guess and do tests and give me bad news.” A big sigh. “I can’t help what they say. And I can’t help not being able to move much or walk around on my own. The only thing I  _ can _ help is you. How can I help you?”  _

_ “Mom…”  _

_ “Come on Pandora. Please.”  _

_ “What about you, Mom? Do you want to see him?” Pandora changes the subject. _

_ “Who?” Hannah is confused.  _

_ “Alastor. I could go find him if you want.” _

_ “Pandora, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Her mom’s expression becomes serious.  _

_ “Why not?” _

 

Dystopia enters the room, breaking the memory’s hold on Pandemonia.

“Mistress!” Dystopia rushes to her. Pandemonia realizes that she is on the floor. She sits up and pulls herself onto the couch. 

“I’m fine. Just..fell asleep. Vivid dream.” Pandemonia says, ignoring Dystopia’s concern.

“How long have you been falling asleep like this?”

“It’s nothing really. Just the concussion.” Pandemonia waves away Dystopia, who takes a step back.

“If you’re sure, Mistress.” 

“I am. Go on, back to working. I’m fine here by myself.”

“Let us know if you need anything.”

“Yes, I will.”

Dystopia leaves. Pandemonia lays down again and her mind goes numb…

 

_ “Please! What are you doing?” Victor’s voice is terrified and his face is contorted in fear. Pandora doesn’t really know what she  _ is _ doing. She just knows that she has something inside her roaring an ugly head. _

_ “Cyn! I know you’ve had a really rough couple weeks. With your mom dying and your brother...but please. Stop!” Victor is now backed into a corner of the kitchen, pressing himself against the wall. He is searching for an escape, any escape. But she’s getting closer and closer to him. _

_ The butcher knife in her hand is terrifying him. He doesn’t know what’s happening. He had found her in an alley and brought her home. And then, when she woke up… _

_ “Victor, come now. I’m not going to hurt you.” Pandora’s voice is high and sickly sweet. Nothing like anything Victor has ever heard before. She can see the fear in his eyes.  _

_ “Put the knife down, Cyn. Please.” He begs, as she steps still closer to him. She’s almost an arm’s length from him now. As if unaware of it until he mentioned it, Pandora looks down at the knife in her hand. Then, she stops. Her forehead wrinkles in confusion. _

_ “What?” The knife drops from her hand and Victor sighs audibly. _

_ “Honey...Are you alright?” He asks, taking a step towards her. She shakes her head and takes a step backwards.  _

_ “What’s..going on?” Tears fill her eyes and  she takes another step back. He, in turn, takes several steps forward until he can stretch his arms around her.  _

_ “It’s okay honey. You were missing for two weeks. I found you in an alley. You’re home now. It’s okay.” Victor whispers and Pandora shakes her head.  _

_ She pulls away from his embrace to look into his eyes. Then, seeing the compassion there, she leans forward and kisses him. _

_ However, the moment their lips meet, something happens. Victor freezes. Pandora pulls back. _

_ “Victor?”  _

_ “No!” Victor’s eyes grow wide. His expression changes and he steps away from her. He clutches his head and falls back into the counter behind him. “No, no, no!”  _

_ Pandora watches in fear as her fiance begins to pull at his hair and starts yelling.  _

_ “Victor!” She is scared and can’t figure out what’s wrong with him. She steps forward and puts a hand on his arm, but as soon as their skin makes contact, he jerks away. _

_ “Why?” His voice is a croak, deep and low. His pupils dilate and a smile is suddenly on his face. Before she has a chance to react, Victor has picked up the knife on the counter next to him. It plunges. Blood… _

 

Cynthia awakens with a gasp. Her face is covered in tears and her throat feels sore, like she’s been screaming.

“No. Oh Victor.” She sobs, trying to rid her mind of the image. Her sobbing is loud and suddenly, someone is next to her.

“Mistress…” 

Cynthia jumps back at the touch. She glances up to see Chaos, that henchman of Pandemonia. 

“Get away from me!” She cries, trying to push him away. Fear overwhelms her for a moment as Chaos’s expression hardens.

“Cynthia.” His voice is angry and cold.

“No, Chaos. Leave me alone.” Cynthia tries to make her voice sound like Pandemonia’s but, after a moment, she knows she failed. Chaos’s expression doesn’t change. 

Fearfully, Cynthia glances around the room. She needs an escape. Any escape. Within a second, she spots the open door. Without hesitating, she sprints towards the door. She can hear Chaos behind her, but she slams the door in his face. Even for him, it’ll take a second to break it down. That should give her enough time to get out. 

She rushes towards the far exit, avoiding the gazes of the people she passes. Cynthia is hoping beyond everything that no one will notice it’s her. 

“I’m Pandemonia. Yep. Just pretend I’m Pandemonia.” She mutters under her breath as she runs. She reaches the outside door and bursts out of it. She runs into someone, however. Someone who catches her wrist and pulls her to a stop.

“Mistress?” Dystopia’s questioning tone and face fill Cynthia’s vision.

“Yes? I’m off to do something. Leave me be.” She tries to mimic Pandemonia’s voice again. This time it works a little better. Dystopia drops her wrist, confusion filling her expression.

“But Mistress, I thought we agreed….” Dystopia pauses as a sound to their right distracts her. 

“Stop! Her!” Chaos’s yell bellows through the warehouse and Cynthia glances to see Chaos barrelling towards them. Cynthia tries to run but Dystopia grabs her wrist again, anger contorting her features. 

“Cynthia. Hello little brat.” She increases the pressure on Cynthia’s wrist.

“No time to talk, sorry.” Cynthia desperately elbows Dystopia in the stomach. Stunned and hurt, Dystopia lets go. Cynthia gives a whoop of victory and sprints away.

“Bye!” She calls behind her, darting away into the darkness, praying that Chaos won’t be able to catch up to her. 


	21. Unexpected Visitor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> SORRY ABOUT MY MINI HIATUS. DIDN'T REALIZE I WAS GOING TO TAKE ONE. THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the record, in this fic, Wally knows Barry is the Flash. Wally, however, is not Kid-Flash and West-Allen is not even close to a thing. Barry never felt anything for Iris more than friendship and brotherly affection. Reminder that this is set between end during the time of about halfway through season two, relationship-wise. No Zoom, little to no references of Reverse Flash. (Basically an AU with changes as established.)

Barry, Iris, Joe and Wally are sitting at the West family kitchen table, laughing and eating dinner when a knock on their door interrupts them. 

“I’ll get it,” Wally offers before anyone else can get up. He rushes over to the door and opens it. Outside, lightning strikes, illuminating the visitor, who is soaking wet and doesn’t wait for an invitation before entering the brightly lit room.

“Iris. Iris?” The shivering blonde woman runs toward Iris, who stands, stunned. 

“Cyn?” Iris catches the other girl and steadies her before she falls. 

“Cynthia?” Barry asks as well, but Iris shoots him a warning look. He remembers that she hasn’t met  _ him _ yet. He gestures at a confused Wally to shut the door, where the wind is blowing rain into the warm house. 

“Oh Iris. I’ve been so scared.” Cynthia sobs into Iris’s shoulder. Joe pushes a chair towards them and Iris sets her friend down into it. Then she walks over to the couch and grabs a blanket off of it.

“Cynthia how did you get here?” Iris asks as she walks back and wraps the blanket around Cynthia’s shivering shoulders. 

“With difficulty.” Cynthia begins, before coughs overwhelm her. Barry offers her a drink and she takes it with a small smile. “Thanks.” She turns back to face Iris without a second glance at the man behind the Flash’s mask. 

“Seriously, Cyn. How did you escape? What happened? You disappeared for ages and you never came back. And then, when I talked to the Flash,” Iris glances at Barry, hesitating for a moment. “He said he couldn’t find any trace of you either, despite running into you at one of Pandemonia’s lairs.”

“Please.” Cynthia suddenly says. “Please don’t say her name.”

“Okay, we don’t have to talk about her. Tell me about you…” Iris rubs Cynthia’s arms and glances around at her family for help. Joe, seeing the fear and concern in her eyes, takes over.

“Cynthia. Do you remember me?” Joe asks, helping Cynthia up out of her chair and leading her to sit on the couch. “Detective Joseph West. I’m Iris’s dad. We met at S.T.A.R. Labs a couple weeks ago.”

He talks in a quiet voice with her for a minute or two while the others watch from around the table.

“Barry.” Iris starts. Barry glances at her.

“What?” 

“I think it’s time for a visit from the Flash don’t you?” She nudges him in the ribs, and Wally nods. Barry glances at her, then at the terrified young woman in the next room. 

“Wouldn’t it just be better if you talked to her? I’ve only met her a couple times and every time…” Barry hesitates, before continuing, “-she’s seemed a little off balanced.” He shrugs, inwardly worried about her mental status, though his curiosity is killing him. 

“I only met her  _ once _ . And yes, we were fellow prisoners and we bonded, but I don’t think she needs  _ me  _ right now. I think she needs  _ you _ .” 

“I think she still needs to talk to you first. If she brings it up, we will have the Flash give her a visit. But for now, she came to talk to you. Plus, it’d be a little obvious if I disappeared and the Flash was suddenly here.” 

Iris sighs and nods before walking slowly into the other room. Barry and Wally follow a few steps behind her. Iris sits on the other side of Cynthia, who is still talking to Joe. He has an interview notepad out and is writing as she speaks.

“-some warehouse, I think. I can’t really remember exactly where it is. Chaos was chasing me and I was running, so I guess I wasn’t paying much attention.” Cynthia shivers and Iris lays another blanket over her shoulders. 

“I’m sorry. I know I’m not being much help. My head just..hurts.” Cynthia continues and Joe vehemently shakes his head.

“No, this is more than we had. Why don’t you go with Iris for a bit and she’ll get you into warmer clothes. Maybe have a shower or something. I don’t want you catching hypothermia. How long have you been out there, in this weather?” Joe glances at Iris, who stands and tugs on Cynthia’s arm. Cynthia stands and lets Iris begin to lead her away, up toward the stairs.

“Four days...I think.” Cynthia whispers before Iris whisks her upstairs. The two girls disappear as Barry and Joe exchange wide-eyed expressions.

“Four days?” Joe asks, in a little louder than a whisper.

“Well, it  _ was _ four days ago that Chaos almost killed me.” Barry says, nodding. “It makes sense. Did she tell you how she escaped?” 

“No. She says she can’t remember. She doesn’t look so good. From what I can tell, she has this really bad bruise on her neck, and I’m guessing the Chaos guy was a little rough with her. Add to that her possible hypothermia and shock, and I think we may have to get Caitlin over here to check her out.” Joe stands, stretching. 

“Not now though. It’s late. She’ll probably sleep in Iris’s room and we’ll discuss it in the morning.” Joe yawns widely. “It’s been a rough couple of days for her, obviously. I don’t think we’ll get anything out of her now if we try questioning her. She’s probably run ragged by now.”

Barry opens his mouth to argue, but Joe cuts him off.

“Seriously, Barry. It’s late; go to sleep and we’ll discuss it tomorrow. I don’t have to work and she seems pretty normal. Definitely not as anxious or crazy as the others we’ve found. She won’t change overnight.”

Barry nods, defeated. He glances towards their half-finished dinner and then rushes over. Within seconds, the food is put away and the dishes are stacked next to the sink.

“Show off.” Joe mutters, then waves his hands at his sons. “Shoo you two.”

Barry and Wally walk upstairs, grinning, despite the weird end to their night. When Barry reaches his room, he shuts the door behind him and stares out his window for a minute. The rain is coming down even harder now and Central City is blurred in his sight. With a heavy sigh, Barry flicks off the light, changes into his night clothes, and lays down.

For a long time, he can’t fall asleep. There is a girl softly crying in the room next to his.


	22. Strange Guest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something is very strange about the West's guest....

Barry is greeted by the scent of cooking bacon and the sounds of quiet chatter as he walks down the stairs. Originally, he meant to speed down the stairs like every other morning, but remembered at the last moment that they had a guest.

A very strange guest.

Cynthia, sitting next to Iris on the couch, looks like a lost sheep as Iris talks speedily, obviously telling a passionate story.

“-then I knocked his toupee off and everyone laughed!” Iris exclaims and Cynthia smiles in reply.

“Iris, are you going to tell that story to every person you meet?” Barry asks with a smile. Cynthia jumps and the girls turn to face him.

“Noo…” Iris holds the word out for several seconds. “It’s a good story!” She begins to laugh and Barry joins her. His eyes are on Cynthia however. 

“How did you sleep?” He asks, trying to assess her physical condition with his eyes. But he’s not Caitlin and he can only notice the bruises on her neck and the bags under her eyes.

“Fine.” Cynthia asks, obviously guarded. “At least I wasn’t freezing and wet.” She glances down hesitantly at her hands. Barry opens his mouth to ask a question but is interrupted. 

“That’s right. What were you doing out in the rain?” Wally enters the room from the dining room area holding a plate of bacon and sausage.

“Trying to escape.” Cynthia responds and before she can continue, Joe enters with a spatula in hand and puts his hand on Wally’s shoulder.

“Now, son. Let’s not discuss last night. We will get the answers as soon as Cynthia is comfortable and has been checked out by Doctor Snow. Now, let’s eat! Breakfast is ready! And remember, don’t be pigs.” He glances at Barry with his last statement, a message in his eyes:  _ Don’t eat like you’re the Flash. You’re just a normal twig of a person.  _ Barry rolls his eyes at his adopted father and follows the others into the dining room. 

 

Doctor Caitlin Snow arrives at the West house shortly after breakfast is finished. Barry is clearing off their table -at a normal speed- with Wally’s help, Joe is in the kitchen doing dishes with Iris, and their guest is laying on the couch watching the television. 

A knock sounds and then Caitlin walks in. After almost two years of friendship, Barry has finally broken her of her habit of waiting for an invitation to come in. 

“Guys?” She asks as she enters, not immediately seeing anyone. Cynthia sits up, rubbing her head. 

“Oh! Hello Cynthia…?” Caitlin says, stunned and confused. She glances at her phone,  remembering the text she received earlier from Barry:

_ Swing by the house about ten. Bring medical stuff. Need you. _

“Yes Barry. Because  **that** was descriptive enough to describe this! ...Whatever it is.” Caitlin mutters under her breath. 

“Hi,” Cynthia says shyly, watching Caitlin as she walks further into the house, glancing around.

“So...where is everyone?” Caitlin asks just as Barry and Wally walk into the room.

“Hey Cait,” Barry says with a smile. “Iris and Joe are in the kitchen. Thanks for coming over.”

“Yeah, no problem. Wasn’t like I was  _ doing  _ anything.” She sends a glare his way. He shrugs. “Anyway, what’s up? What am I doing here?”

“We were wondering if you would take another look at Cynthia.” Wally nods towards the girl on their couch.

“Cynthia Jackson. Last time I knew, you were in the captivity of Pandemonia and her crew, right?” 

Cynthia flinches as the word “Pandemonia” echoes in the room. Barry shoots Caitlin a look that plainly warns her about not mentioning their current villainess. Caitlin, though thoroughly confused, nods and then walks over to stand by Barry. Wally wanders out the door, throwing a glance at the awkward room before walking out of the house. As the door swings shut behind him, he mutters something about, “schoolwork...uh….homework...stuff.” 

“Are you hungry, Cait?” Barry asks as the door shuts soundly. 

“No, thanks. I had a bagel before coming over. Should we get...the examination...started?” Caitlin seems to not know exactly what to do but she walks over to the couch and sits next to Cynthia.

“So...she was complaining about a headache earlier,” Iris walks into the room and stands next to Barry, who gives her a worried smile. 

“Do you still have it?” Cait puts a hand on the back of Cynthia’s neck but Cynthia pulls away.

“Uhm...not really,” she pulls out of Caitlin’s reach and pats her hair nervously. 

“Kay, well how long did you have the headache then? May I take a look at those bruises?” Caitlin asks patiently. Cynthia hesitates, but after Iris nods encouragingly, she allows Caitlin to take a look at her neck. She brushes Cyn’s hair out of the way and Cyn shivers, but holds still.

“I...uh..had it for a couple days, I think. But this isn’t the first time I’ve had one like this...They come and go pretty often. It’s gone now. Just a slight throbbing at...uhm..light.” 

“Interesting. Do you remember when you first started to get them?” Caitlin asks, and Cynthia opens her mouth to answer but then bites her lip.

“Uhm...a year? Two? Three? My...uh, husband and I….” She pauses for a moment before her eyebrows scrunch. “My husband? Where is my husband?” Her voice suddenly pitches into panic. “Victor?” Her eyes gleam over for a second. “Where, where is he?” 

“Do you possibly know his full name, Cyn? When did you last see him?” Iris had out her notebook, ready to take notes. 

“I, I don’t remember. His name was Victor, I know that...but...It must be her drugs. They mess with people’s minds.” Cynthia’s expression twists in frustration and annoyance as she tries to search her cloudy memories.

“‘Was?’ Cyn, you said ‘was.’” Iris’s voice was shaking as the realization hits the room. 

“Oh…” Cyn became very quiet. 

“Anyway, let’s move on.” Caitlin gives Iris a dirty look and then tells Cynthia, “How did you get these bruises Cyn?”

“I...think...someone pushed me against the wall?” 

“Who?” Barry asks, his hands fisting at his sides.

“I don’t remember…” But her voice trails off and she glances at Barry. Caitlin meets his gaze and then heaves a deep sigh. 

“Can I talk to you for a moment?” She asks as she stands, not waiting for his response. She gestures for Iris to follow them as she drags them into the kitchen. Joe, who is just finishing up the last of the dishes, gives them a nod and then heads off to the station.

“Look, Barry, I need you and Iris to go to work, okay?” Caitlin says patiently.

“Why?” The adoptive siblings ask at the same time.

“Because I think that you are making her uncomfortable.” She pauses and Barry opens his mouth to reply, but she interrupts, “I know that you don’t mean to, Bare. But that doesn’t change anything. And Iris, really, I think it’s best if you go to work. You’ve got that article to write. Professionally, I think Cynthia will do better if she has less of an audience. Okay? Now, just go. Please.” 

Barry and Iris share a look but then they agree. 

“Okay, whatever you think is best, Cait. I’ll head to the CCPD and help Joe out on his current investigations.” Barry gives them a small wave and then turns on his heel and heads out into the living room again.

“See you later Cynthia.” Barry says and gives her a smile before walking out of the house. As soon as the door shuts, he Runs to the station. 

Caitlin comes back into the room as soon as Barry leaves, and Iris gives Cynthia a small smile and a wave before she skips out of the house.

Leaving only Caitlin and Cynthia alone in the room and in the house. 


End file.
